Russian Radio
by Blake Bishop
Summary: AU, Russ/Amer. Alfred is upset after his girlfriend breaks up with him. To cheer him up, Matthew secretly signs Alfred up in a "Be a DJ for a Week" contest for a radio station. Alfred wins and he meets Ivan, the owner and main DJ of the station.
1. In the Beginning

_Alright, so I am attempting another fic! I'm actually going to try to make this one last a little longer than most of my others. And I'm going to take a shot at romance, so watch out. This fic and the title was inspired by the song "Cold War Transmissions" by Anberlin. Look it up, it's an awesome song. :D_

_And to what you're actually interested in- the parings! These are the current pairings that I have for this. More will be added later, I'm sure. Russia/America (main), Canada/Ukraine, France/England, one-sided America/Mexico (she's an OC), and one-sided Russia/Belarus._

* * *

Ivan Braginski glanced down at the paper in his hand with a slight look of contempt and a very menacing smile on his face. Surely, this was an insult against him, or some kind of jest. Ivan's violet eyes glanced from the repulsive paper to a shaking brunet who looked like he really didn't want to be there. "Toris?" Ivan asked, ignoring the startled jump that the other male gave. "Y-yes sir?" Toris Lorinaitis asked meekly. The Russian smiled at the nervous brunet and slammed the paper down on his desk. "Please tell me what this says," Ivan commanded more than asked and he tapped the paper several times. Toris gulped and he coughed nervously. He knew exactly what was on the paper, he _had _drawn the shortest straw and had to deliver it to Ivan after all.

"I-it's this month's r-rantings," the brunet said weakly. Ivan kept a childish, yet terrifyingly threatening smile on his face and he raised an eyebrow, silently urging the poor Lithuanian to continue. Toris took a deep breathe, bracing himself for whatever was to come. "A-and it says that WKZY 106.9 has h-higher ratings than us," he said.

A terrible silence issued in which Ivan stared at Toris without his expression changing and the Lithuanian stood awkwardly and shivered. Toris swore the temperature in the room had dropped a few degrees. "And do you perhaps have an idea as to why that is?" Ivan asked suddenly, causing the brunet to almost have a heart attack. This was seriously causing him too much stress. "W-well, sir, Eduard thinks that it's because they h-have promotional things going on," Toris mumbled and looked at the floor.

Ivan stared at the Lithuanian for a moment before he burst out laughing in an almost maniacal way before his laugh mellowed into a much softer chuckling (Toris was positive that he had almost fainted right on the spot). "Toris, what _they_ call 'promotional' is slutty girls, horny men, and lots of booze. Of course _they're _going to have more of an audience," the Russian said as if he was talking to a small child. Ivan stared at the Lithuanian with a contemplative look on his face and Toris willed himself to turn invisible (sadly, it did not work).

"Do you have any ideas for promotions, Toris?" Ivan asked, and the brunet bit his lip. "W-well, there was this one idea I had," he mumbled. A look on the Russian's face urged Toris to continue. "I was thinking that m-maybe we can have some kind of 'Be a DJ for a Week' contest or s-something. I think people would probably be interested," the brunet said timidly. Really, he actually just made the idea up on the site to appease his boss. He doubted that more people would listen to their radio station just to try and sign up to be a disk-jockey.

Surprisingly, the Russian looked almost as if he was considering the idea. Which was totally ridiculous. There was simply no way that he would agree to such a silly idea and Toris would get more time to come up with a better idea- "I like it. Get the paperwork and rules and all of that ready and we'll start this 'Be a DJ for a Week' contest," Ivan said cheerfully and Toris felt his stomach drop. "O-of course," he said with a defeated sigh. Of course Ivan had to agree right away. And pin all of the work on the brunet. Toris wondered if he had done something awful in a past life to deserve this.

***

Matthew Williams was not a happy person at the moment. This was because his older half-brother, Alfred F. Jones, was acting depressed and as if it was the end of the world. And the reason why Alfred wasn't acting like his usual childish and naïve (stupid) self was because his girlfriend, Maria Garcia, had dumped him. This left the older blond miserable which lead to Matthew being miserable because Alfred had a strange ability which caused his emotions to rub off on those around him.

At first, the Canadian had been sympathetic towards his brother. But after almost two weeks of Alfred acting downcast, Matthew was beginning to get fed up by his brother's moodiness. The younger blond seriously wished that he could come up with something, _anything_ to have his idiot brother acting like his normal idiot-self again.

But sadly, no matter what Matthew tried, Alfred didn't seem to respond. It was thoroughly irritating.

The Canadian sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He had gone up into his room to get away from his glum sibling and turned on his radio, hoping that an idea would come to him. As soon as his radio came on, some commercial about cars came on and the blond snorted. Maybe if he got Alfred a car, he'd shut up about his ex-girlfriend. Matthew chuckled at the idea.

Then, the commercial ended and the Canadian heard a male voice with a distinctive accent come on. Matthew smiled. He was a loyal listener of the radio station RUSH 145.9 for several reasons. One was because they had good music (albeit, it had a decent amount of commercials too). But the other (far more embarrassing) reason was because Matthew really liked the radio personalities. There seemed to be only two (and occasionally a third if the other two couldn't be on). One was a male with a smooth voice that went by the name of Ivan. He generally was on during the mornings to mid-afternoon. The other was a female who had a soft and sweet voice that went by the name of Katyusha. She was generally on from when Ivan left off until about ten pm or so.

Matthew had a particular fondness of Katyusha, but that just because he liked her personality and the music she played. Nothing else.

The Canadian plopped gracelessly down on his bed and half-listened to Ivan's accented voice talk about some traffic problems or something. Then Ivan said something that caught the blond's attention. _"Now that I am done with the traffic, I have an announcement. RUSH 145.9 is currently holding a contest for all you listeners. This contest is called "Be a DJ for a Week" and, as the name implies, the winner will be able to come to our station and be a DJ for a whole week. Please look at our site for more details and registration,"_ the voice said cheerfully before a song switched on.

Matthew stared at his radio for a minute before an idea formed in his head. Alfred certainly liked to talk and he liked listening to the radio (even if he preferred a different station). If he could get the older blond's mind off Maria for a bit, then maybe it would start him down the road of emotional recovery. Then he would finally stop acting like someone had ran over his dog and life could get back to normal! Matthew was pleased with this idea.

He quickly pulled his laptop from under his bed and went straight to RUSH 145.9's website. He read over the rules and due dates and quickly signed Alfred up for the contest. Really, he sorta wanted to sign up for it himself in hopes of meeting Ivan or Katyusha, but he knew he couldn't really do any public speaking like Alfred could. Plus, this would hopefully take the American's mind of his ex. Matthew decided that he was a good younger brother as he hit the send button.

***

Several days later, Matthew had been ignoring his older brother insane ramblings about Maria and giant robots when he noticed a new message in his inbox. He clicked on it and was confused to see 'Congratulations' written in a large font. He read the message underneath and he felt his heart almost stop.

Alfred had won the contest.

Matthew chuckled nervously and got his brother's attention. "Hey Alfred. What do you think about being a disk-jockey for a week?"

* * *

_Yeah, so this is just the beginning of the end. More 'getting to know the characters' should happen in the next chapter. Note: I really don't know much about radio broadcasting and stuff, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. WKZY 106.9 is an actual radio station around here. Please review so I know if I should continue or not._

_Also, if anyone can guess the meaning of 'RUSH 145.9', I'll give you a cookie. Here's a hint, use numerology on the numbers. :D_


	2. Why I Hate my Brother

_Alright, since it seems like people actually want to read this, I'll continue. I'd like to thank **Nyaburger**, **Phoebe**, **kenpachi-sama**, and **Peter is Pan** for reviewing! And I can't tell you what it means, you have to guess! Cause I'm a dork. :D But, here's another hint about what RUSH 145.9 means: take out the H and switch is to S. It'll have the same sound. _

_Okay, so here's chapter 2. I really hate this one, cause it seems kinda forced to me and there's just a bunch of explaining. _

* * *

Alfred stared out the window and worked on ignoring his little brother (which wasn't all that hard, actually). Matthew was driving Alfred to the address for the RUSH 145.9 radio station and trying to explain how it wasn't so bad and that he thought it might get his mind off of Maria and how (contrary to what Alfred thought) RUSH 145.9 was _not_ run by evil villains. The American scoffed at that. _His _favorite radio station, WKZY 106.9, had mentioned how bad RUSH 145.9 was and how it was run by communist. So, Alfred _really_ didn't want to have anything to do with them.

But his brother had insisted and gave him puppy-dog eyes and was generally all around annoying until the older blond had relented.

The Canadian pulled up to a building and looked between it and the address written on a scrape of paper with a frown. "Well, the address is the same, so this must be the place," the younger blond said, sounding a little like it didn't believe it. Alfred couldn't blame him though. He always thought that radio stations were tall skyscrapers with a bunch of satellites sticking out from the sides. But this...didn't exactly look like that. There was just one satellite on the top of the building, which was understandable, but other than that it just looked a run-down, two-story, brick building with a simple sign next to the door that read: "RUSH 145.9 Radio Station".

Alfred gazed at Matthew with a clearly unimpressed look and the younger blond chuckled nervously. "Looks can be deceiving?" Matthew tried. Alfred grunted and got out of the car, and Matthew followed the suit.

They reached the door and Matthew knocked on it while Alfred shoved his hands in his pockets. The younger blond smiled at his brother encouragingly. The siblings heard a startled yelp from inside and suddenly the door swung open to reveal a very tired looking brunet. He gave the brothers a worn smile. "Ah? Who might you two be?" He asked politely. "I'm Matthew and this is my brother, Alfred. He won the, um, contest," Matthew explained a gave the brunet a slight smile. "Oh! Oh, please come in!" The male said, perking up almost immediately.

He stepped aside and let the two blonds in. Once again, they were surprised at the appearance of station. It really looked more like an old house than a place of business. They had entered into what appeared to be a hallway with several rooms branching off on the sides and a staircase at the end. There were cardboard boxes piled up in various spots of the hallway and papers scattered haphazardly on the floor.

"My name is Toris Lorinaitis. Um, please excuse the mess," the brunet mumbled while giving the room an embarrassed look. Alfred gave an unimpressed snort and Matthew gave him a sharp jab in his ribs. Toris looked at the two and bit his lip. "Well, there was only supposed to be one person being a deejay. But I suppose Mr. Braginski won't mind if someone else at least gets a tour, I suppose," he said with a thin smile and nervous chuckled. At least he hoped his boss wouldn't mind.

"Who's 'Mr. Braginski'?" Matthew asked, curious. "He's the owner of this station. He's also it's main disc-jockey. You may know him as Ivan," the Lithuanian explained. Alfred rolled his eyes at how utterly impressed his brother looked at that. Really, how could anyone be impressed if _this_ was his evil base? Alfred certainly wasn't.

"Okay, so I suppose I'll give you two an outline of the station," the brunet said. "That door there leads to Eduard Von Bock's office. He in charge of Fiance and Sales, which all about taking care of the taxes and commercials and really anything to do with money. I help occasionally," he explained and gestured vaguely to one of the doors.

"That door there leads to the Technical room. It has all of the broadcasting machines in it. I generally take care of that," the brunet said, gesturing to another door. "That door leads to the basement. In the basement is our record library. That's were all of our music is stored. I take care of that too," Toris said, his voice seeming a little strained.

"Let's see, that door leads to the broadcasting room. It's where our radio personalities talk and play music," the brunet informed. Alfred sighed, feeling terribly bored by all of this. Matthew, on the other hand, looked absolutely fascinated.

"That room is the break room. It has a bathroom and mini-kitchen," Toris said with a fond smile, which Alfred found to be quite strange. "And that," the brunet paused and practically glared at the room he was pointing at, "Is _my_ office. I handle the personnel, promotions, and I'm also the receptionist," he said, now sounding extremely stressed.

"It sounds like you do a lot," Matthew said quietly and Toris gave a drained laugh. "Yes, I suppose I do. Now, I guess it's okay for you to go anywhere in the station. Except upstairs," the Lithuanian said. He noticed the curious looks the siblings gave and explained "That's where Ivan and his sisters live." The brothers gave the brunet an incredulous look.

"He actually lives here?" Matthew asked and Toris nodded. "Yes. As does Katyusha. She's Ivan's older sister. They also have a younger sister, Natalia, who's still in high school. They all live here," Toris explained. Alfred opened his mouth to make a rude comment but suddenly a dirty blond-haired teen burst out of the broadcasting room with a panicked look on his face. "Toris! Mr. Ivan is asking for the traffic papers, do you have them?" He asked. Alfred noticed that he was shaking violently and frowned. What was up with that?

Toris got a look on his face that mirrored the other boy's and he frantically started to pick up the papers off the ground. "Oh, I'm sorry Raivis! I got distracted and forgot to give these to you. And I dropped them too," the brunet said offhandedly. He handed the papers to the other male and smiled at the brothers. "This is Raivis Galante. He's our intern," Toris introduced and Raivis gave a polite nod. "Ah, Raivis. Could you tell Mr. Ivan that the contest winner and his brother are here?" Toris asked. Raivis nodded and scurried back into the broadcasting room.

Toris smiled at the siblings and gestured to the break room. "How about you two wait in the break room until Mr. Ivan is done?" The brunet said with a smile. "Alright," Alfred answered for the both of them. "Good, just call me if you need me," Toris said and he went into his office.

The siblings walked into the room and they immediately noticed a blond-haired woman sitting at the table in the center of the room. She looked at the two with surprise that quickly turned to cheerfulness. "Hello. My name is Katyusha. One of you must be the winner of that contest, right?" She asked timidly. Matthew nodded quickly and Alfred noticed that his brother had a slight blush on his face. He could understand, this Katyusha woman was clearly well-endowed. For a moment, the American was proud of his brother's unusual notice to 'lady parts'.

"Y-yeah. My brother here won," the younger blond said, almost shyly. Yeah, Alfred seriously was resisting the urge to embarrass his younger brother right about now. "Ah, so you must be Alfred then," she said to the American. He grinned widely and gave her a wink. "That's right! Nice to meet you, beautiful," he said boastfully. She laughed quietly and turned her attention to a displeased-looking Canadian. "And you are?" She asked kindly and Matthew blushed again. "My name is Matthew," he replied bashfully.

Alright, now Alfred couldn't resist embarrassing Matthew. "Aw, Mattie's got a crush. That's okay Mattie, I agree. She has a lovely rack," Alfred said jokingly with a laugh. Matthew turned to him with a look of clear horror and humiliation, but it only caused Alfred to laugh harder. "I'm _so _sorry! Please excuse him. He's a freaking moron," the Canadian said and he elbowed the other blond in the ribs, hard.

Katyusha smiled slightly and waved it off. "No, it's okay. You don't have to apologize," she said reassuringly and Matthew smiled in relief. Alfred figured it was because she probably got comments like that all the time.

Suddenly, it felt like the room had gotten several degrees lower and there was a murderous aura in the room. "Da, you are right, sister. He shouldn't apologize. The _other _one, however..." a voice trailed-off dangerously.

The siblings quickly turned around and standing there was a tall Russian man who had an intimidating presence. He had a smile on his face that clearly did not match his eyes, which were currently promising immense amounts of pain. Alfred gulped. It seemed he was right about the place being run by evil villains after all.

* * *

_Ah, drama. I don't think it would be above Alfred to make rude boob-based comments on occastion. He IS a male and a teenager, after all. Ivan is gonna kill you Alfred! D: I think that Alfred would be the kind of guy to be paranoid about communism too. Cold War and all that. -  
_

_Also, I don't know if it's _really_ called a 'broadcasting room' or not. And I have trouble with the Baltic Nations' hair/eye colors, cause it seems to change. Oh well. Review please, it makes me happy._


	3. Ivan is Secretly a Serial Killer

_I have brought forth another chapter. In, like, almost the same day. Go me! Thank you to **kenpachi-sama** (happy birthday!) and **Peter is Pan** for reviewing! I also have to note that I made a really dorky reference in this, so I feel the need to explain. When Alfred mentions that Ivan is maybe an Underlander because of his purple eyes, that's a reference to a book series I love called the 'Underland Chronicles'. There's people living miles benenth the Earth's surface and they have pale skin, silver-ish hair, and purple eyes, due to being underground for so long. I couldn't help it. Purple eyes! D:_

_So anyway, here's this chapter which explains for things and also gives you a hint as to who made Alfred all 'anti-RUSH 145.9". :D  
_

* * *

There was a tense silence in the room as Ivan and Alfred stared each other down while Matthew and Katyusha looked on with concern. The American swore that if he averted his eyes from the Russian's, he probably spontaneously burst into flames. _'He has strange eyes,'_ Alfred mused randomly. It was true, Ivan's eyes were a peculiar shade of violet, which was certainly not a color that the American was used to seeing. He decided that, perhaps, Ivan was _so_ evilly diabolical (and communist) that his eyes somehow changed from their natural color to purple. Or maybe he was an Underlander.

"Brother," a shy voice spoke up. Ivan turned his attention away from Alfred (much to the said blond's relief) and focused on his older sister. "The ratings?" Katyusha said bashfully and Ivan visibly stiffened. "Toris can pick someone _else,_" Ivan said and Katyusha shook her head. "Do you really have to make Toris do all of that work _again_? He works so much as it is..." she said with a frown and she started to get the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

Alfred noted with humor that both Ivan _and _his brother looked panicked at the sight of the woman tearing up. "_Nyet, nyet bal'shoy sistra. _If you want, the American can stay," Ivan said in an attempt to stop any water-works. Alfred snorted. "And what if I don't wanna stay?" He asked arrogantly. Ivan glared at him hatefully while Matthew gave him an annoyed look.

"Alfred," the younger said in a tone that made the American cringe. Alfred knew that tone. Matthew had only used it about three or so times in his life, and it was a tone that promised the American a terribly ghastly life until the problem was solved. Once, Alfred had accidentally let Matthew's large and bear-like dog, Kumajiro, out of the house and the animal had gone missing. Matthew had used that tone, but Alfred had stubbornly sat on the couch and watched television instead of helping to search for Kumajiro. The American was certain to never make _that_ mistake again.

"But, I suppose it won't hurt too much to stay," Alfred said, giving his brother a 'don't-hurt-me' smile. Ivan's glare lessened (minutely) and Katyusha smiled, all traces of tears gone. "Wonderful! I'm glad that you'll stay," the woman said kindly. She turned her attention to her younger brother. "Ivan, how about you show Alfred to the broadcasting room and show him what to do," she suggested. Before Ivan could respond, she turned her attention to Matthew. "Would you like to come with me, Matthew? I'm going to go help Toris out with his work, god knows he needs it," Katyusha asked with a slight giggle. The Canadian blushed and nodded his head quickly.

Katyusha took a hold of Matthew's hand and lead him out of the room (Alfred was sure his brother was about to die from all of his blood going to his face). The door clicked shut behind the two and Ivan and Alfred stood in silence. "Well, guess I'll be on my way to the broadcasting room," the American said after minute or so of quiet, not too comfortable with being alone with the Russian.

Suddenly, before Alfred even had a chance to blink, Ivan pinned him against the wall and glared down at him. The Russian smiled childishly and leaned close to the shorter blond's ear. "Here is the deal, comrade. Never speak to or about _moy sistra_ like that ever again. I would have to do something about it. And I really don't feel like beating your pretty little face in. Do you understand?" Ivan whispered and Alfred suppressed a shudder.

He nodded quickly and Ivan took a step back, smile still on his face. "Good! I'm glad we have reached this understanding," the Russian said cheerfully. He patted the American's shoulder and he retreated out the door.

Alfred stared dumbly into space, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. _'Thanks a lot, Mattie. __You just made me a target of a serial killer.'_

***

Arthur flipped the 'Closed' sign over to 'Open' and sighed. Today (during the blasted afternoon, for some reason), a bunch of people were coming over to his bar , the Britannia Angel, due to some ridiculous promotion the WKZY 106.9 radio station was doing. Long ago, the Brit had decided that the station only drew in punks, bad-seeds, and sexually repressed young adults. And ever since the disc-jockeys at the station had started to hold functions at his bar, all of these people seemed to come to the Britannia Angel.

To Arthur, it was either have a bunch of hooligans come in and he earns money, or he could have virtually no customers and be broke. Arthur could deal with the hooligans. It was a shame that they drove away what customers he did once have, though. Like this Russian fellow who used to be a regular. Arthur never really cared for the man personally, but he was loyal until WKZY 106.9 started using his the Britannia Angel for its own purposes.

The bell attached to the front door jingled as the door was thrown open and the Brit rolled his eyes at the dramatic entry. "Francis," he greeted and made a face like he'd just swallowed a lemon. Said blond Frenchman laughed and waltzed into the bar. "Ah, _mon petit lapin_, it's so nice to see you!" Francis said enthusiastically. He got on one knee and pulled a red rose from virtually nowhere. Arthur vaguely still wondered how he did it.

"A rose for a rose," Francis said seductively with a wink. Arthur rolled his eyes, but he took the flower from the Frenchman. Then he threw it over his shoulder without even bothering to look interested while Francis looked horrified about the mistreatment of the rose. "Cut the crap, frog. I hope you plan on controlling you're listeners. And Gilbert. I'm tired of those punks breaking my good shot glasses," the green-eyed male complained and Francis chuckled, completely recovered from his previous rejection.

"I'm sorry, _cher_. But aren't you happy that I promote your business?" Francis asked and Arthur glared at him. "Gilbert promotes my pub, as well," Arthur said and bristled when the Frenchman laughed. "_Vrai_, but I was the one to promote you first. I do it for love," Francis said with a smile and Arthur snorted, clearly unimpressed. "I doubt that. Just keep your bloody followers in line for once," the Brit said and walked behind the counter, prepared for a long day of delinquents who believe that coming to a bar in the middle of the day was normal, or worse, _cool_.

Francis gave Arthur a fond smile behind the Brit's back. "Well, I'll try. But they more like Gilbert's followers, and heaven knows I can't control _him_," the Frenchman informed nonchalantly and Arthur groaned. "Bloody tosser. I have the right mind to call his brother. Or that Hungarian woman. She could beat some sense into that prat, I'm sure," the Brit suggested moodily. Francis laughed.

* * *

_Translations: "Nyet, nyet bal'shoy sistra" - Russian for "No, no big sister"  
"moy sistra" - Russian for "my sister"  
"mon petit lapin" - French for "my little rabbit"  
"cher" - French for "dear"  
"Vrai" - French for "True"_

_I'm a bit worried about how offen I'll be able to update soon. School is starting next week, so I probably won't be able to get them up as fast. =/  
Anyway, review if you have the time.  
_


	4. Gilbert has a Plan, sorta

_Alright! I'm sorry I took so long to update! This is my first week of school, so things are a little crazy. I'd like to thank **Nyaburger**, **kenpachi-sama**, **Peter is Pan**, and **Phoebe** for reviewing (I'm sorry that it's hard for you, I'm trying to work on it)._

* * *

After recovering from the initial shock that he was being forced into close contact with a serial killer/commie, Alfred made his way to the broadcasting room, taking his merry good time.

When the blond finally did reach the door, he warily pushed it open and ignored the anxious feeling he was getting in his gut. It certainly wasn't that he was _afraid_, or anything. He was a hero, after all, and he could handle anything.

Alfred took a step inside. The first thing he noticed was Ivan sitting in one of two chairs that was in the room. The Russian gave him a creepy and so-not amiable smile and Alfred gave him a glare. The American turned his attention away from the other male to inspect the room for any questionable materials (like missiles).

There were music posters and a good amount of photographs tacked onto various places on the wall. Up against the wall was a table that had a microphone and other electronics that Alfred couldn't put a name to. Next to the table were a few boxes that were filled with records and a few others that were full of wires and little bits of pieces of machinery. The last thing that Alfred took in was a table in the corner of the room that had a vase of sunflowers in it. The American smirked. He'd have to tell his brother that his new girlfriend liked sunflowers.

Ivan coughed to get Alfred's attention. "Well, I suppose I will tell you how everything works. This is the microphone. When you push this button, it will turn on and you can talk into it. That's when people can hear you, so don't say anything stupid," Ivan informed and Alfred nodded. He really wasn't listening to the Russian, after all, he could probably figure out all of that techy-mumbo-jumbo by himself.

Ivan had moved on to explaining something about airwaves and the American started to look at the pictures on the walls. Some of them had Toris, Raivis, and some other male with light brown hair standing together (they each looked on the edge of a break-down). A few others had either Ivan or Katyusha standing with different people who were probably listeners. There was even one with Ivan standing in front of a building that looked like a bar with a short blond male who had _huge_ eyebrows.

"These boxes have some records in them. These records are currently quite popular, but I suppose if you want a different selection, you had best ask Toris. I don't really know all of what's in the record library, but he should know," Ivan informed. Alfred was about to interrupt and hopefully put an end to this long-winded speech, but more photos caught his attention. They seemed to be of a younger Ivan standing with a younger Katyusha and a little girl, probably that younger sister Toris mentioned before. They all looked pretty happy…even if where ever they were at looked cold as hell.

"Well, since it's almost time for Katyusha to come in, I will just make things easier for the both of us and count this as a day…" Ivan paused and Alfred glanced up only to see the Russian smiling at him with an aura of animosity. "It seems that I have just finished speaking to a wall. How productive," Ivan said sarcastically and Alfred pouted.

"Hey! I was listening! Microphones, ask Toris for records, counting today, yeah yeah, I got that," the American said indignantly. Then he grinned slightly. "Well, at least that's one day down," he said. Alfred cockily picked up one of the devices on the table and (pretended to) play with it. He could prove to the Russian that he was technology-savvy. He pressed a button on the thing and it gave out a loud 'BEEP'. The American yelped and dropped the device on the floor.

He and the Russian stared at it for a minute before Ivan smiled at him with hostility. Alfred took that as a sign to get his brother and bolt.

***

Arthur felt torn between using the pint glass in his hand to bash in the skull of the little punk in front of him or just letting it go and preserve the glass so that it may live to see another day. The Brit decided on the latter. He was tired of paying for broken things in his pub. He sighed moodily and went back to serving ale and beer to the occupants of his bar.

Arthur was seriously considering just kicking everyone one out. "Arthur!" A voice yelled and the Brit rolled his eyes. Out of nowhere, an albino had thrown his arm over Arthur's shoulders and was grinning widely at the shorter blond. "You seem to be having fun," the albino observed and Arthur growled.

"You bloody git! I wish you'd go tear up someone else's pub instead of mine, Gilbert. And does it look like I'm having fun?! Because I bloody well am _not_," Arthur hissed viciously. Gilbert chuckled, unfazed by the venomous look the Brit was giving him. Arthur gave him a dirty look and took this as an opportunity to rant. Gilbert, completely used to this by now, gracefully ignored him and flirted with a few women while Arthur cussed him out.

Suddenly, a paper was pushed into the albino's face, much to his and Arthur's surprise. "Gilbert, look at this," Francis demanded, looking upset. Gilbert gave the paper a long look before he glared at it. "What that hell?! When did you get this?" The albino demanded, flailing his arms dramatically.

"Antonio sent Lovino to give them to me," Francis said then frowned, "Gilbert. This is just from this past week. Somehow, RUSH 145.9 has gotten more popular. Kiku says it has something to do with a contest they had recently. But you know Gilbert, it really isn't that big of a deal-" The albino interrupted with roar and a string a curses, causing both Arthur and Francis (and pretty much anyone who was close by) to jump.

"Of course it's a big deal! There's no damn way that I'm letting that bastard beat me!" Gilbert shouted. Francis gave an exasperated sigh and Arthur snorted, annoyed. The albino was always trying to beat his rival at the RUSH 145.9 station, Ivan. Arthur was never quite sure why exactly Gilbert seemed to hate the Russian so much. Personally, the worst the Brit could come up with was that Ivan was a tad violent and creepy.

Gilbert began mumbling ways to utterly defeat Ivan and prove how awesome his five meters was or something and Francis took this as a brilliant opportunity to grope Arthur (which didn't last long due to the Brit slugging the Frenchman).

"Aha! I got it!" Gilbert shouted suddenly. He got a strange glint in his eyes and wicked grin on his face. "Okay, so if that bastard's ratings went up 'cause of that contest, then they could go down from the contest, right?" The albino asked. Arthur opened his mouth to answer, but Francis quickly put his hand over the Brit's mouth (much to the latter's fury).

"Exactly! So that's what we will do! Boys, we're gonna sabotage Ivan's radio show by using his own contest against him!" Gilbert declared and laughed manically. "Just as soon as I figure out what it was that his contest was actually _about_," the albino thought out loud and Arthur groaned.

Why did all the _stupid_ people have to come to his pub?

* * *

_Yay, now some crazy stuff should go down. Probably. :D _

_I realized something pretty funny while writing this, and I couldn't bring myself to change it. When Alfred mentions that he had to tell his brother his new girlfriend liked sunflowers, I realized that the sentence is quite...flexible. It can be read Alfred has to tell Mattie that his [Mattie's] new girlfriend [Katyusha] likes sunflowers OR Alfred has to tell Mattie that his [Alfred's] new girlfriend [Ivan] likes sunflowers. Ha ha ha, I'm like a comedy wizard or something. :D_

_Anyway, review if you have the time and I'll try to update as soon as I can._


	5. Alfred's First Broadcast

_Yay! I have updated! Thank you sincerely to all those who reviewed! So here's this chapter that's pretty much all full of Russia-America interaction. Gilbert's awesome plan will be reveled in the next chapter (whenever I get that up). So anyway, enjoy~_

* * *

The sun was shining, the sky was cloudless and blue, the birds were chirping, cheery background music even seemed to playing. All in all, it was a beautiful and wonderful morning in which a person wakes up and just knows that today will be totally awesome.

However, this was _not_ the case for Alfred F. Jones.

He had been forced to wake up early by his little brother, which had put him in a grumpy mood, but when he had sleepily asked why he had to get up so early, Matthew had informed him that he was going to RUSH 145.9's radio station so he could work as a DJ.

Of course, this did not sit well with the American in the least, and when he tried to get out of going because it was too early, Matthew had replied that Ivan was awake and on-air before the sun was even up, so Alfred was technically late and that he should get dressed and eat breakfast.

So, after tons of complaining and arguing, Alfred was sitting in the passenger seat of the car while Matthew was driving and they were heading off to Hell. Or the radio station. Alfred considered them one in the same.

When the brothers arrived at the door, Matthew knocked on it with a nervous-but-excited smile on his face while Alfred glared sleepily at the ground. After a minute, the door opened to reveal Toris. "Ah, you two are here early," he said cheerfully. Alfred instantly decided that he must be a morning person.

Matthew gave the brunet a tentative smile and a nod. "Um, yeah. I'm sorry if that's a problem, eh," the Canadian said with concern. Toris merely smiled and did some hand motion as if to brush it off. "No, no, that's perfectly fine. Please, come in," the Lithuanian said and moved aside to let the siblings in.

Toris glanced towards the stairs and then to Matthew. "Miss Katyusha isn't up yet. Since she works a little late she tends to sleep in," Toris said. Alfred elbowed Matthew and gave him a suggestive smile to which the Canadian ignored. Toris raised an eyebrow at this, but chose not to say anything. "Mister Ivan is in the broadcasting room. You can just go in, but you should be quiet, okay?" The brunet informed Alfred, who looked less than pleased.

"Alright. I'll see you later Mattie. Hopefully," the American said, sounding as if going in the same room as Ivan was a death sentence (which it probably was). Matthew rolled his eyes at his brother's tone, but nodded. "Alright then. I guess I'll stay here and help Toris out with his work, eh. Behave yourself Alfred," Matthew said, giving the American a slight glare. Alfred gave him a mock salute and quickly marched into the broadcasting room.

As soon as he walked into the room, Alfred's eyes were drawn to a Russian sitting at the deejay table. Ivan was looking through one of the record boxes, and Alfred steeled himself against the impending doom of alerting Ivan of his presence. "Hey," the American mumbled. Alfred laughed mentally as Ivan gave a startled little jump and looked at the younger male in surprise.

"What are you doing here this early?" Ivan asked warily and Alfred gave the wall a dirty look. "Mattie made me wake up early to come in. That asshole," the American complained. He stifled a yawn and turned his attention to the Russian, and was extremely displeased to see that Ivan was smiling his stupid smile.

"Is that so? Well, you look quite tired," Ivan said, ignoring the glare the American sent him, "But I suppose I can trust you not screw anything up," he finished. He patted the empty chair next to him and Alfred grudgingly plopped down in it. Ivan gave him another creepy smile. "Luckily for you, this is a commercial break. I was just picking out a few records for after the break, but since you are here, I suppose you should pick them," the Russian said and gestured vaguely at the box next to Alfred's feet.

The younger grunted and started to look through the records while the Russian put a set of headphones next to his ear. "Pick quickly, the commercial will end soon and you need to introduce yourself and read the traffic reports. Then you'll have to play some music for the nice people at home," Ivan informed and Alfred gave an annoyed huff.

"Damn it! Stop telling what to do. I can figure it out, I don't need your help," the American whined with a slight pout. Still, Alfred decided to hurry up a little and he randomly picked out a few records from the box. He handed them to Ivan, who gave a small hum and put them on the table while still listening to the headphones.

The Russian handed Alfred the mic and tapped a pile of papers on the table. "When I tell you to, you press the button on the microphone here. All you have to do is introduce yourself and read the first page here. I'm hoping that you'll be able to pull this difficult task off," Ivan said with a slightly sarcastic voice.

Alfred rolled his eyes, but kept silent. His stomach was twisting in excitement despite that he hated this radio station. People would know who he was. He would be practically famous!

Ivan whispered a small "Go" and Alfred nervously pressed the button. "Hello there," Alfred started, and nervously licked his lips. Ivan gave him an encouraging nod and Alfred took a breath. "My name is Alfred F. Jones and I won that contest so I'm gonna be your DJ for about a week or so," the American said, gaining a more confident edge to his voice as he continued, "So I guess I'll start with this traffic report here. Let's see…there's a car wreck on fifty-five, so if you need to go somewhere, take a different path because that one is all backed-up," Alfred said casually.

He glanced at Ivan and was happy to see that the Russian seemed almost impressed by how quickly and easily he'd mastered talking into the microphone. Alfred finished his little broadcast with a cocky grin planted on his face the whole while.

When he finished reading the paper, Ivan placed one of the records in a machine that Alfred would probably break trying to get it to work and gave an almost relived-sounding sigh.

"That was pretty awesome, wasn't it?" Alfred asked with childish glee. Ivan grunted in reply (Alfred wasn't sure if it was in annoyance or agreement) and leaned back against his chair. "Well, at least you didn't screw it up," the Russian said with a tone of nonchalance and Alfred gave him a glare.

"Shut up! I did awesome! You're just mad because you _wanted_ me to screw up so you could make fun of me, you ass," Alfred accused. Ivan stared at the American blankly for a minute and snorted. "Yes, of course. I wanted you to make an ass of yourself and end up making me look bad. Makes perfect sense," Ivan said with a sneer and Alfred sulked.

The two sat in an awkward silence for a while until Ivan stood up. "I'm going to the break room," he announced. He glanced at Alfred and sighed. "…Would you like me to get you something?" Ivan asked finally and the American gave him a surprised look. The Russian was actually offering to get him something? Alfred gave him a wide grin and nodded enthusiastically.

"Sure! Can ya get me some coffee? And maybe a hamburger?" Alfred asked eagerly. Ivan's lips twitched and he raised an eyebrow at the younger male. "Coffee? Sure. Hamburger? Probably not, but I'll check anyway," the Russian answered.

He walked out of the room and Alfred smiled. Maybe Ivan wasn't _really_ as bad as he thought. _'Then again, he could try to poison my drink,'_ the American thought suddenly. Never mind, Ivan still was a douche.

* * *

_In case you couldn't tell, I'm going to use underlines for when it's the radio. Um, the thing with the headphones...well you see, that's what those are for. In real radio (and other such stuff), they use headphones so they can tell what whatever they're doing sounds like. Sorry if that didn't make any sense. _

_Also, I have a request of you readers at home. I would really like some suggestions for music. I have only two songs for this fic, one being (of course) "Cold War Transmissions", and the other one is a secret~  
...But those are the only two I have, and I would like to hear what you guys want on here. :D So please tell me!_

_Oh, and here's another hint for the meaning of RUSH 145.9. I will sorta explain numerology. You see, it is a way to transfer letters into numbers and when added to together, it's suppose to reveal things about your personality and stuff. Like, the name Ivan, for example. I=9, V=4, A=1, N=5. And blah blah blah. It goes from 1 to 9. A=1, B=2, C=3, etc until I=9, then it starts back at 1 until 9 again and it continues until the alphabet is all used up.  
Yeah...I think I just made it more confusing, but that's the best I can explain it._

_....Review please!_


	6. Really Smooth, Gilbert

_Gah! I finally managed to get this up! I'm sorry it took so long, my mum kicked me off the computer and all kinds of stuff so I had barely any time to write this. I'd like to thank **Eternally Me**, **xgravigirlx**, **Peter is Pan**, **Ivan Braginsky**, and **chrnoskitty** for reviewing and/or suggesting music. And I'm sorry if I mess up on grammar and spelling. Also, in most radio stations that aren't just little local ones, they are all in a big building owned by one person/group and they have different stations in different rooms. One of the DJs for a radio station I used to listen to mentioned that they went down the hall and visited a DJ for another station. I was totally blown away. _

_Be warned, there's a really pathetic innuendo in this._

* * *

Matthew smiled slightly at the radio that Katyusha had put in Toris' office so they could hear the broadcast. Toris was in Eduard's office helping him with some of the finances, so Matthew and Katyusha were left alone.

The Canadian was both happy and surprised that Alfred was actually being serious about his role of being a deejay. Although, he wasn't surprised that the American was speaking so easily to the general public. He _was _very charismatic, after all.

"Your brother is very good at this, isn't he?" Katyusha inquired, startling Matthew out of his thoughts. "O-oh, yeah. He's kinda like that, eh," Matthew said, a blush tinting his cheeks. He never would admit to Alfred that he had been right about him having a small (but not really) crush on Katyusha. Actually, he would never admit that to anyone.

She gave him a smile that made his poor Canadian heart flutter. "Brother is a little like that too. I know it took me a long time before I could talk freely like that. Now that I think about it, I'm still a little stiff on the air," Katyusha said with a slight laugh.

Matthew gave her an encouraging smile. "I don't think you sound stiff at all. I'm a little stiff all the time," Matthew said without thinking. Katyusha gave him an odd look before she started giggle uncontrollably. The Canadian gave her a questioning look, trying to figure out what was so funny until it hit him like a brick in the face. _'Oh my god.'_

Matthew's face turned an interesting shade of red as he tried to choke out a clarification. "I-I mean, that w-wasn't, I didn't mean for it to come out _that_ way, I'm sorry!" Matthew defended desperately, distress written all over his face.

The Ukrainian stopped laughing and gave him an upset look. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you upset Matthew! It's just I thought it was a bit funny and oh I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, slight tears gaining in the corner of her eyes.

They stared at each other in silence for a minute before they both started to laugh shyly which lead to an awkward silence. Matthew blushed again and cleared his throat. "I…I'll just go outside for a bit," he declared, getting up. Katyusha blushed and nodded. "O-okay. Take your time," she mumbled.

Matthew quickly hurried outside of the building to take a breather and possibly fight off his utter embarrassment.

***

Saying that Gilbert was in a bit of a fix would be spot on at this moment in time. His awesome plan to sabotage Ivan's contest had gone from being mildly easy to being extremely difficult (not to mention illegal).

Originally, he was just going to find the kid who won the contest and tell him or her to say bad things about RUSH 145.9 or something. He had considered this to be an awesome idea, since he had come up with it and all, but that had changed after he talked with Roderich Edelstein, a DJ for a classical music station that was just down the hall from his station's room.

He had mentioned that he was going to mess up Ivan's little contest and the Austrian had suggested basically his entire plan. This upset Gilbert. If _Roderich_ could come up with the plan by himself, then it obviously wasn't awesome enough. So, the albino chose to make a plan that was so extreme that no one else would ever consider it.

Gilbert would just kidnap the contest winner.

It wouldn't be the first time he'd done something illegal, but would certainly get him in a world of trouble if he was caught. But luckily enough for him, he knew that Ivan wouldn't go to the police. The Russian would be too proud to do anything like that, since it was an issue between the two of them.

So Gilbert, after recruiting help from the rest of the Bad Touch Trio, had listened to RUSH 145.9 in hopes of getting some sort of clue to the winner's identity. He wasn't disappointed. The winner, an _Alfred F. Jones_, had stupidly introduced himself and Gilbert had a name.

He quickly contacted Kiku Honda, one of tech guys for the station, and asked him to find an address or picture of this Alfred person. Luckily for the albino, Kiku found a picture in the form of a police arrest (apparently, he had burned his neighbor's house down via fireworks when he was younger).

Gilbert was one step closer to going through with his awesome plan.

Now, the albino was sitting the backseat of his car with Francis while his other friend, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, was in the driver's seat. Francis gave him a slightly annoyed look. "Gilbert, do we _really_ have to go through all of…this? Can't we just, I don't know, be a little bit more benign towards Ivan and his little contest thing? You know, just this once?" The Frenchman asked, and then flinched at Gilbert's heated look.

"Benign?! First, stop using those fancy ass words on me! Second, no! Was that bastard ever nice to me? No! He wasn't! Ever since we were kids he's been a total douche, and he knows it. Besides, if this Alfred kid listens to Ivan's station then obviously he's one of _them_, so it's cool. As long as we don't get caught by the cops or anything," Gilbert concluded.

Francis opened his mouth to counter the albino's statement, but was quickly interrupted when Gilbert suddenly shouted "There he is!" Antonio stopped the car next to a blond male and Gilbert flung the door open. Francis threw a brick at the station's door that had a note tied to it which read _"Stop the promotion if you ever want to see Blondie again!! Signed the Awesome Prussian". _Then the albino pulled the blond into the car and Antonio floored it.

As they were speeding away, Gilbert laughed manically. "Yes! We have captured Alfred F. Jones! Take _that_ Ivan!" The albino cheered victoriously. Francis shook his head and the recently-kidnapped blond looked both terrified and annoyed somehow, but still closer to terrified. "W-what!? Alfred!? W-what do you want with m-my brother?" The blond asked with a mixture of pure worry and panic. Gilbert and Francis frowned, but mainly Gilbert.

"…Your brother? You mean you're not Alfred F. Jones?" The albino asked with a strangely deadpanned voice. The blond shook his head. "I'm Matthew," he said in a small voice and Francis cursed in French. "Good going Gilbert. Really smooth, you kidnap the wrong person," the Frenchman snarled viciously enough to make Matthew flinch. Not that Antonio or Gilbert would ever notice/care enough to ever react to such a tone of voice.

Gilbert gave a shaking Matthew a contemplative look. "No, this could still work. He _is_ blond and all. Plus, you know, Alfred's brother, so Alfred will probably quit. Yeah, this is good," the albino said out loud to himself. "Okay, so let's go to our secret base!" Gilbert exclaimed, earning a sigh from Francis.

***

"Okay, so how 'bout this song next?" Alfred asked, holding up a record. Ivan glanced at the label and chuckled. "_'So What'_ by Pink. Really Alfred?" Ivan asked with mirth. Alfred blushed lightly and glared at him. "Shut up! It's a good song, and it matches me a little," the American defended.

Ivan gave him a look of curiosity. "It matches? What do you mean?" Ivan asked, and Alfred glared at his full cup of cold coffee (he had opted not to risk drinking it). "Well…I guess I could tell you, as long as you don't use it against me," Alfred said. Ivan made a motion of crossing his heart and smiled.

The American rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I guess I can tell you. …My girlfriend dumped me a couple of weeks ago. I guess I'm not really over it yet," Alfred mumbled. He sighed dejectedly and Ivan felt an instant dislike of Alfred's ex-girlfriend. The Russian fleetingly considered that maybe it was because Alfred apparently still liked the woman, but as soon as that thought came to him, Ivan stomped it into the metaphorical dirt of his mind.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Ivan decided that he also disliked Alfred being gloomy. It just didn't seem natural.

"Honestly, where has all of your moxie gone?" Ivan asked, finally breaking the silence. Alfred gave him a surprised look. He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a crying and very distressed-looking Katyusha bursting into the room.

Ivan stood up swiftly and walked over to her, concern instantly written on his face. "What's wrong?" He asked. Katyusha took a few breaths before holding out a piece of paper. "I-I found t-this outside. Oh Ivan, Matthew w-was kidnapped!" She whimpered, and then broke down into a fit of tears.

* * *

_Oh noes, Mattie was kidnapped! Yeah, that's how I role._

_I know no one suggested 'So What' by Pink, but I heard it today and it matched the scene, so went with it. Hopefully, I'll get some of what you guys suggested into the next chapter. Also, can anyone guess where the Bad Touch Trio's secret base is in this story? :D  
_

_Review please~  
_


	7. Rescue Mission

_I'd like to thank **Peter is Pan**, **LellowOssapus**, and mysterious person who doesn't have a name for reviewing! LellowOssapus, you were correct! Mysterious person, you made me laugh so I put the part about a shed in here! :D_

_Please enjoy~  
_

* * *

Ivan was in a very foul mood.

He had to deal with his older sister who was, in lack of better terms, having a complete and utter breakdown, and he also had to deal with a very distraught American shooting off so many questions that Ivan couldn't even figure out half of what he was asking. Ivan promised to himself that the next time he saw Gilbert he'd punch him in the face.

Ivan tried to reread the ransom note in his hand but suddenly there were blue eyes directly in his vision. The Russian idly thought that they were a very pretty shade of blue, much like the sky, but he was a little surprised that Alfred could have such a serious look on his face. "Ivan, what the hell is happening? Who is 'the Awesome Prussian'?" The American asked in a shaky tone.

The Russian sighed. "That would be Gilbert Weillschmidt. He's a rival DJ who works at the WKZY 106.9 and he hates me," he answered dully. Alfred made a confused and upset face. "I-I don't believe it!" The American declared. Ivan snorted. "Why? There are a lot of people who hate me," Ivan said and Alfred gave him a weak glare.

"No! I don't believe that Gilbert would do something like this!" Alfred said stubbornly and Ivan raised an eyebrow. "…You know Gilbert?" Ivan asked. Alfred nodded, but then shook his head. "I know him from listening to WKZY 106.9," the American admitted. Ivan gave him an annoyed look. He should have known that Alfred was basically on the opposing side.

Alfred looked at Ivan with impossibly huge and watery eyes and Ivan felt his previous annoyance fade. "Will Mattie be alright?" Alfred asked in a voice that sounded very small and childlike. Ivan frowned, his dislike of the albino steadily growing. "Well, I'm sure Gilbert won't hurt him…" Ivan informed.

Alfred gave him a look that clearly said that his answer was still unsatisfactory. Ivan opened his mouth to say more but was interrupted by a flustered Toris barging into the room with a phone in his hand. "Oh, um, Ivan? You have a call…" the brunet said. Ivan gave the phone a curious look. Who was calling him?

Ivan took the phone and held it up to his ear. "Hello?" He asked warily. Ivan was quite surprised when the person on the other end started talking.

"Oh, um, hello Ivan. This is Arthur Kirkland. I don't know if you remember me or not, but I own the Britannia Angel," a British voice said and Ivan was quite confused. "Yes, I remember…" the Russian mumbled and Arthur gave a slight sigh. Ivan wasn't sure if it was from relief or annoyance.

Arthur cleared his throat. "Right, well, I thought I should call you and inform you that Gilbert just ran in here with Antonio, Francis, and some poor lad who is tied up and Gilbert was screaming some nonsense about you and five meters," Arthur gave a huff, "Anyway, I have a feeling that bloody idiot is doing something illegal and I don't want it going on in _my_ pub. So if you would please drop by and stop this nonsense…" the Brit said, trailing off.

"I'll be right over," Ivan said, hanging up the phone. He handed it back to Toris and noticed that all eyes were trained expectantly on him. The Russian gave them a slight smile. "I know where Matthew is."

***

Alfred was in a state of mental turmoil, really. He had always trusted his favorite station for news and information and pretty much everything they said was the truth. Not only that, the station had made him an enemy of Ivan and his station.

So really it was quite an upsetting thing to find out someone that had seemed decent, cool and even trustworthy would kidnap your little brother over a petty rivalry that didn't even involve you.

Alfred was sitting in the passenger seat of Ivan's car while said Russian was driving to the Britannia Angel. Ivan had told Katyusha to stay back at the station and continue the broadcast, and when she had tried to object, Ivan had said some things in Russian that had made both her and Toris look significantly paler. Had Alfred been less worried about Matthew, he would have found it suspicious.

"…Why did he call himself 'the Awesome Prussian'?" Alfred asked while fidgeting impatiently in his seat, obviously trying to distract himself. Ivan glanced over to him and then back to the road. "That is because when we were younger, he used to say that he hailed from Prussia. I used to make fun of him for saying that because Prussia isn't even a country anymore," the Russian said with one of his creepy smiles. Alfred gave an unimpressed snort and Ivan frowned slightly.

After driving for several minutes (which was mostly filled with a heavy silence and Alfred fidgeting until Ivan told him to stop), Ivan finally parked outside of a simple and British-looking pub. The sign in the front had "Britannia Angel" written in old English text and a simple neon sign in the window that read "Open".

The two quickly darted inside. Alfred noticed that the bar was quite empty except for a strangely familiar blond with even more familiar eyebrows who was wiping off the counter. The blond looked up at the new arrivals and gave them a half-smile. "Ah, Ivan. It's been a long time," he said in a very British accent. Alfred couldn't figure out why this guy seemed so familiar and he had a feeling that it would bug him until he figured it out.

Ivan gave the Brit a slight smile in return. "Indeed it has Arthur. It's quite a shame that we meet up again during a rescue mission," the Russian said with slight mirth and Arthur glared. "Rescue mission? That bloody twit! I wish he'd stop doing such stupid things. Gilbert, Antonio, and Francis are all in the back room. It should be unlocked. Take your time," Arthur said darkly.

Ivan smiled like he had a diabolical plot and headed towards the back room while Alfred followed close behind.

The Russian opened the door with ease and before Alfred got a good look at his brother's kidnappers, Ivan charged into the room and punched an albino square in the face. Soon the two started to brawl and a blond man cursed in French while a darker-haired one snoozed against a wall as if there wasn't a fight five feet away from him.

Alfred's eyes fell upon an upset Canadian who was sitting in a chair in a corner and Alfred swore that he'd never felt so relieved. "Matthew!" Alfred yelled, flinging himself on top of the younger blond. Matthew yelped and they fell into a heap on the floor.

The Frenchman walked over to the two and chuckled. "It certainly took you a while to get here, _non_?" He asked cheerfully and Alfred shot him a hateful glare. The other sibling, however, smiled slightly. "Better late than never, Francis. And it wasn't their fault," Matthew said. Alfred stared at his brother in shock. "Why are you being so nice to this guy? He helped to kidnap you!" Alfred shouted, causing both Francis and Matthew to flinch.

The Canadian recovered first and gave his brother a sheepish grin. "That's true, but that was mostly just Gilbert. Antonio and Francis just kind of went with it. Besides, Francis is the reason why you guys knew where to find me," Matthew said distractedly while watching Gilbert and Ivan fight with a frown on his face. He greatly disliked violence.

Alfred sent the Frenchman a questioning look and Francis smiled. "Well, I had to convince Gilbert to come here instead of the shed behind his house. I knew _mon petit lapin_ would call Ivan," he said with a strange note of pride and fondness in his voice.

Alfred nodded and watched Ivan kick Gilbert while he was down (usually, the un-heroicness of that would upset the American, but he didn't really mind at the moment).

Soon, the Russian seemed content and stopped kicking the albino. He turned to the two siblings with a creepy smile on his face. "Let's go back and let _moy sistra_ know that _Matvey_ is okay, _da_?"

***

Natalia walked into her home prepared for a wonderful afternoon of admiring (and/or stalking) her older brother. She could honestly say that she hated school, since it kept her away from her dear brother. But, Ivan had wanted her to get a proper education, as he put it, so Natalia would gladly go to make him happy. Luckily, she was a senior and would soon graduate, giving her all the time in the world to spend with her brother.

"It was so awesome!" An annoying voice yelled from the break room. Natalia raised an eyebrow and listened to the commotion on the other side. "Ivan beat the crap outta that bastard and totally saved the day!" The annoyed voice shouted and Natalia frowned. Her brother had been in a fight? If he had one single hair out of place, she would gladly go and stab whoever would dare fight her older brother.

Another, calmer voice laughed lightly. "Does this mean that you think Ivan is a _hero_?" The calmer voice asked, clearly amused. There was a disbelieving snort. "Tch, _no_. I was just saying that he _could_ be a hero if he wasn't already a, you know, _villain,_" the annoying voice said, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A third voice chuckled and Natalia instantly knew who it was. "You think I'm a villain, Alfred?" Ivan asked, sounding highly amused. Natalia gently nudged the door open and saw a sight that made her blood boil.

Ivan, _her_ Ivan, was patting some blonde's head affectionately and actually _smiling_, like he was _happy_ or something! Ivan was happy being around someone who wasn't _her_! Natalia growled low in her throat. She vowed that the blond, this _Alfred_ person, would pay dearly and soon.

* * *

_I can honestly say that I love writing in Belarus' perspective. She's so much fun! Anyway, I have a question: am I progressing too fast? It just feels like that to me. Also, I have a poll up in my profile if anyone wants to look at that._

_Review please~  
_


	8. Don't Call Me Gyeroy

_Alright! I got this up! I'd like to thank **xgravigirlxl**, **Peter is Pan** (who also contributed the song in this), mysterious person who turned out to be **ninjafox369**, and **Schaden-freude** for reviewing. And thanks to all of you who did my poll! _

_This chapter is a bit different with the way I wrote it (as Schaden-freude suggested), so I don't know if I did it right or what...  
_

* * *

Francis knew as soon as he entered the Britannia Angel that something was wrong. Usually when he made a grand entrance, Arthur would tell him to stop acting like a queen or make some other impolite comment. Today, however, the Brit just sent him a glare then proceeded to completely ignore the Frenchman.

This bothered Francis.

"You look lovely today, _mon cher_," Francis said with a seductive smile only to gain absolutely no reaction from Arthur. Francis frowned. This certainly wasn't a good sign. "Your ass looks especially nice," he ventured. Francis expected to get yelled at or hit or some combination of the two. What he didn't expect was more silence from Arthur, who continued working as if a flirtatious Frenchman wasn't hitting on him.

The two stayed silent for a while, Arthur ignoring Francis while Francis stared at him, until the older blond gave a dramatic sigh.

"Why are you ignoring me, Arthur?" Francis asked seriously. The Brit paused, obviously affected by the use of his name and not one of Francis' pet names for him. Francis waited for an answer, but when he received none, he gracefully waltzed up behind Arthur and wrapped his arms around the shorter man's waist.

Arthur glared at him. "What the bloody hell are you doing?!" He demanded, trying to pull away from the other blond. Francis tightened his hold on the Brit stubbornly.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm hugging you, obviously. Do the English dislike public affection so much that they can't recognize something so simple?" Francis asked. Arthur made an annoyed growl and tried to pull away from the Frenchman again, this time succeeding.

He turned around to face Francis with a furious expression painted on his face. "Honestly Francis, go home. Words cannot describe what I feel at this moment. _Kidnapping!_ I _cannot_ believe you!" Arthur yelled, jabbing the Frenchman's chest with his finger. "What if something had happened yesterday? What if the police had been called? Or if that lad had gotten hurt? Bloody hell Francis!"

Arthur turned away from the older blond in a huff. Francis stared at him in surprise for a moment before he smiled slightly. He wrapped his arms around Arthur again, completely ignoring the Brit's protests, and kissed Arthur's cheek. Arthur turned an interesting and very bright red which caused Francis' smile to grow wider.

"Ah, but _mon lapin_, I knew you would make sure that nothing happened to him. Even if you hate to admit it, you do care about what happens to other people. Even me," Francis purred. Arthur adverted his eyes to the ground, but didn't try to break away from Francis' hug.

After letting himself be embraced for a few more moments, Arthur violently shoved Francis off him with a disgusted look. "Of course I care about you, you git! I would have fewer customers if it wasn't for you. And Gilbert," Arthur hurriedly added, blushing slightly at the victorious grin Francis had on his face.

Francis ruffled up Arthur's hair and ignored the Brit's undignified squawk. "Whatever you say, _amant_," he said fondly.

***

Even though Alfred hated to admit it, he was actually a little teeny tiny bit excited to go to the radio station today. But the reason why he was excited _wasn't_ because he'd see Ivan. Because if that were the case, the American would have thrown himself off of a bridge.

No, the real reason was because he found that he really enjoyed being a deejay. He had even considered becoming a professional deejay over his dreams of being a pilot, which had completely shocked him. Alfred knocked on the door and was surprised that Ivan was the one who answered the door.

Ivan gave him a smile, but frowned slightly when he noticed there was one less blond than usual. "Hello Alfred. Where is Matthew?" The Russian asked innocently and Alfred shrugged his shoulders.

"Mattie had classes, so he couldn't come today," Alfred said. The American noticed Ivan's questioning look and sighed dramatically. "He's in college. What? Did you think that he doesn't have a life outside of when you see him?" Alfred said in an accusing voice.

Ivan snorted. "Hardly. Though I do have to wonder if _you_ have a life outside of when I see you. After all, don't you have classes to go to as well?" The Russian asked. He was surprised when Alfred gave the ground an ashamed look and mumbled something incoherent.

"What was that?"

"I said 'I dropped out of college'. Turn up your hearing aid," Alfred muttered angrily, still looking at the ground. Ivan stared at him for a few seconds before moving aside to let the younger blond in.

"At least you're living proof that you don't need college to come up with witty insults," the Russian said with a slight smile. Alfred didn't look impressed and walked by him.

Suddenly, dark eyes were glaring right in Alfred's face. He wasn't quite sure when Ivan's little sister had gotten there or how she seemed to come out of virtually no where, but it still kind of freaked the American out a little. He had met Natalia for the first time yesterday after rescuing Matthew. He greeted her civilly enough, but she had simply given him a venomous look and walked away.

Ivan made a displeased sound. "Why are you still here, Natalia? Lunch is about to end and you'll be late to class if you don't leave now," the Russian said in an almost chiding voice. Natalia stared at him blankly before nodding.

"I'm leaving now, brother. I will see you this afternoon," she said with a complete lack of emotion that perturbed Alfred for some reason. She walked out without another word and the two males stared at each other for a minute before Alfred broke the silence.

"I'll be honest, your sister creeps me the hell out," he said plainly. Ivan chuckled slightly and Alfred raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, she can…unnerve me as well," he said. Alfred gave him a surprised look. First, he thought that Ivan would punch him in the face, not agree with him. Second, he found it ridiculous that such a powerful evildoer would be afraid of his own little sister.

Alfred chuckled. "What? You're actually _scared_ of her? She's like, what? Six years younger than you or something? And, you know, she's shorter than you. And a girl," the American added with a snicker, but stopped at Ivan's grave face.

"Yes, that's all fine and well, but you'd be at least a _little_ wary of her if you had found a shrine in her closet dedicated to you, among other things," Ivan said darkly, then shuttered as if he had just relived some incident which had scarred him for life. Which he had, by the way.

Alfred gapped at the Russian who just stared back. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Katyusha believes that this is just a faze, but that's not important. Do you know what tracks you want to play today?" Ivan asked. Alfred nodded dumbly, still trying to wrap his head around the new, and quite disturbing, information he had just discovered, which he really wish he could just un-discover.

***

"Highs will be in the nineties, lows will be in the seventies. Yep, it sounds definitely like summer weather to me, so go out to the beach or something," Alfred said into the mic cheerfully. Ivan put a record into the player and gave a signal to Alfred. "Well, that's the end of my weather report. Now here's a song from Muse called _'Time is Running Out',_" he finished and Ivan hit the play button.

Alfred turned off the microphone and leaned back with a cocky smile on his face. "I did pretty awesome, didn't I? I bet I can be a hero to some kids somewhere. They'll listen to me and be amazed and think that I'm a hero who they should look up to," he said proudly.

Ivan rolled his eyes. "I think you have some type of hero complex or something," the Russian said with a chuckle and the younger blond glared at him.

"Well, duh! That's because I _am_ a hero. Unlike _you_. You're the _antihero_," the American said in a cogent tone, and crossed his arms over his chest. Ivan chuckled at how childish Alfred seemed. Then a brilliant thought came to him.

"If you say so, _gyeroy_," he said with mirth and Alfred gave him a suspicious look.

"What does that mean?"

Ivan smirked. "What does what mean? _Gyeroy_? Oh, that's just your new nickname."

Alfred's face turned to a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. "I didn't ask for a new nickname. What does gee-, guy-, whatever that word is, what does it mean?"

Ivan chuckled. "It's a secret."

Alfred glared. "…It's probably like 'asshole' or something."

The Russian chuckled again and shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. But really, at least I'm not calling you _podsolnyechnik_. It was a hard decision between the two," Ivan said and Alfred cocked his head to the side, very much like a puppy.

"What does pod-so-whatever mean?"

Ivan smiled. "It means 'sunflower'," he said, noting the insulted face Alfred gave him.

"Sunflower? What kind of gayfer nickname is _that_? …And why was it between sunflower and asshole?" Alfred asked and Ivan snorted.

"I happen to like sunflowers. And you're a little like both, but then I realized that it would insult the flowers if I named you after them, so _gyeroy_ it is," Ivan said with a tone of finality.

Alfred purposely ignored the insult directed at him and pointed at the vase of sunflowers in the corner of the room. "Wait, so those are _yours_? I thought they were Kat's. Wow, you're like a girl or something," the American said with a laugh.

Ivan gave Alfred a cheerfully threatening smile. "_Atyebis', durak gyeroy,"_ he said coldly and Alfred glared at him, but not at full force due to the disease that Ivan's aura caused.

"…Stop saying stuff in Russian. I can't understand you," Alfred mumbled and Ivan guffawed.

"Stop kvetching then, _gyeroy_."

* * *

_Don't you love education? I'm learning all these new words and finding ways to add them! Like the word 'moxie' from a previous chapter and 'kvetching' in this one, I'm learning away! Lol. Oh, and the reason why Natalia was at home during lunch is because she's a senior, thus can drive to wherever for lunch (my school might start allowing it and my dad does it).  
_

New foreign langauge vocab words for this chapter: _'amant' -_ French for _'lover'.  
'gyeroy'_ - Russian for ....(it's a secret)  
_'podsolnyechnik' -_ Russian for _'sunflower'.  
'Atyebis', durak gyeroy' -_ Russian for _'Piss off, fool _(secret)'.

_If anyone can guess what 'gyeroy' means, I'll give you a cookie. Note: it's not asshole. :D_

_Review please~ Oh, and you can still take that poll if you want. I'm closing it later this week._


	9. That's How We Roll, Right Over You

_Holy crap! So many people reviewed the last chapter...and they were mostly right! Was it _that _obvious? I guess so. Yeah, it means 'hero'. So anyway, thanks to **Peter is Pan**, **kenpachi-sama**, **Yeyana Valentine**, **xgravigirlxl**, **ninjafox369**, **deidarafangirlll**, **Liebchen-chan**, **Allyon Everstone**, and **Ivan Braginsky** for reviewing! Also, it's such an honor to have THE Ivan Braginsky reading this. _;D _So anyway, please enjoy~_

* * *

Toris was in a pretty good mood and was looking forward to the day of work ahead of him. This was mostly because after Matthew and Alfred started volunteering (for lack of a better word) at the radio station, his work load had decreased. What with Matthew efficiently helping him with his several jobs and Alfred distracting his boss so Ivan wasn't constantly breathing down his neck, the brunet was actually enjoying his job.

But for some strange reason, neither of the siblings had come in and the Lithuanian was getting a tad bit worried. He pushed it out of his mind, thinking that it was probably just his overly-nervous personality.

The phone in his office started to ring and he picked it up. "Hello, RUSH 145.9 radio station," he greeted professionally. There was shuffling and hushed whispers on the other side before a timid voice spoke up.

"Um, hi Toris. This is Matthew, eh. I, um, Alfred and I can't come in today," the Canadian mumbled. Toris noted that the blond sounded antsy, like his mind was somewhere else completely.

The brunet frowned slightly. "Aw, that's too bad. Is something wrong?" Toris asked, mostly out of politeness. The Lithuanian vaguely heard a very American sounding voice swear profusely in the background and Matthew drew in a shaky breath.

"Oh, yeah w-well…Alfred is in the hospital," Matthew said solemnly.

Toris dropped the phone.

***

Alfred was having a bad day. First he was in the hospital, which sucked. Then the doctors told him that he had to stay overnight so they could 'observe' him to make sure he would remain stable, which also sucked. _Then_ Matthew called the radio station and blabbed about him being in the hospital, which sucked a lot because Katyusha and probably Ivan were coming by to check up on him. He was fine with Katyusha stopping by, but he seriously didn't Ivan _anywhere_ near him when he was injured. He'd get commie germs on him or something.

There was a knock on the door and Alfred grumbled a "Come in". His younger sibling slowly opened the door and gave the annoyed American a meek smile. The Canadian advanced carefully, Katyusha close behind, but strangely no Ivan was in sight. Alfred was actually a little surprised, since he expected that the Russian would love to come and torment him while he was in a weakened state. It just seemed like something Ivan would do.

Katyusha gently closed the door behind her and sent Alfred a concerned smile. "How are you feeling?" She asked and Alfred groaned loudly.

"I feel fine! I want to go home. I don't want to stay in this stupid hospital all night. I bet people _died_ in _this _room and their ghosts are waiting for night to fall before they attack me!" The American whimpered loudly. Matthew rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly.

"Glad to see that you're not scarred for life or anything," the younger blond half-joked.

The three talked for a while, mostly about trivial things such as the weather or if Elvis really was abducted by aliens (which Alfred was positive was the case) or if ghosts were really going to steal his soul in the middle of the night. After noting the time and being sure that Alfred would be fine, Matthew and Katyusha left, much to the American's dismay. He really didn't want to be alone.

Alfred lay back in his stupid hospital bed, wishing that he could hurry up and go home. Really, he was completely fine, other than his ego, which was quite battered from the incident, but he'd get over it.

There was another knock at his door and Alfred huffed. "Come in, asshole," he called, thinking it was his stupid doctor who wouldn't let him go home and wanted him to stay all night long. The door opened and someone who happened to _not_ be his doctor came in. Alfred raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here? Kat and Mattie said that you were working at the station," Alfred questioned.

Ivan chuckled and put the sunflowers next to some get-well flowers Matthew had sent his brother. "Yes I was, but then Toris had time to deejay so I got off early. Are you not happy to see me, _gyeroy_?" Ivan asked, sitting in the visitor's chair that Matthew had been sitting in previously.

Alfred rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me shit in Russian. And why did you bring me _flowers_? You don't bring a man _flowers_ for a get-well present. You bring a card or something more manly," the younger complained.

Ivan smiled. "I suppose, but Matthew brought you flowers. I'm sure you didn't complain nearly as much," he said.

Alfred shook his head. "It's okay if _he_ brings me flowers. He's my brother and he's pretty girly as it is, so he doesn't know proper get-well present etiquette. Besides, _you're_ the one who likes sunflowers, not me," the American stated, as if he were talking to a slow child.

The Russian stared at Alfred with a creepy smile for a while before he broke the uncomfortable silence. "So what happened, _gyeroy_?" He asked.

Alfred growled in annoyance, but let the nickname go. "Like I'd tell you," he replied with a slight pout.

Ivan snorted. "What? You're too much of a coward to man up to whatever you did to get hurt?"

Alfred shot him a glare. "Shut up! It wasn't my fault!"

"Oh? Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure."

"Then what happened?"

Alfred frowned and looked away from the Russian. He really didn't want people to know what had happened. But, maybe it'd be okay. Matthew was there, he'd seen it happen and he didn't find it funny, so maybe Ivan wouldn't either. "Okay, fine I'll tell you. I was innocently walking across the street and _not_ jaywalking when, out of _nowhere_, came this crazy ass Korean guy on a motorcycle with this Chinese guy in the sidecar and he freaking ran me over and I totally flew into the air and everything! I swear to god! And he just kept going! Just –BAM! - Then drives away! I didn't even know they made sidecars anymore!" Alfred ranted. He paused to watch Ivan's reaction.

Ivan stared at him blankly for a few moments before he howled with laughter. Alfred gave him an offended look and blushed in shame. "Shut the hell up! It's not funny!" The American defended.

Ivan smirked, still snickering a bit. "Well, since you seem to be fine, yes. Yes it is funny. Just the mental image of you getting hit by a motorcycle-sidecar combo and flying into the air makes me laugh. And you know that, had it been me in this bed instead of you, you'd laugh too," the Russian said.

Alfred snorted. "Well of course I'd laugh! I hate your guts, so if you got hit by a moving vehicle, I'd laugh. More than you laughed at me even," the younger said stubbornly, unwilling to admit defeat.

Ivan sighed and patted Alfred's head. "I suppose. But back to the point, I'm glad you aren't going to die," he said with a creepy grin.

Alfred hummed skeptically. "Well that's 'comforting'. I'm glad you're glad that I'm not going to die. …Still, you couldn't bring me ice cream or something? That'd be _so_ much better than flowers."

Ivan sighed with irritation and gave the younger blond a menacing smile with was promptly ignored while Alfred went off on a tangent about the wonders of ice cream.

***

Natalia was furious, no- she was _beyond_ furious. She was so completely pissed off that she could easily chuck that stupid blond-haired American in front of the Bullet Train and never feel an ounce of pity.

She had heard that Alfred was put into the hospital, which wasn't really anything important to her personally. But when her brother had gone to visit him, she knew something was not right.

Ivan only ever went out of his way for people he really cared about. If either of his sisters or Toris were put into the hospital, he'd visit. Not only had Ivan visited Alfred, but he also brought flowers with him, and not just any flowers. _Sunflowers._ Ivan had brought his favorite flowers for someone, and it completely threw Natalia.

She doubted that Ivan would bring _her_ sunflowers if she was in the hospital, unless it was something major or life-threatening. Alfred didn't fit into either of those categories, seeing as how the most he had was some bruising.

Natalia hissed and crushed the binoculars in her hand, easily breaking them in her fury. Oh yes, that American wasn't about to get away with seducing _her_ brother. This meant war.

* * *

_Ah! Poor Alfred...this scene changed so many times. First, it was just Japan hitting him with a car. Then it was Belarus hitting him with a car. Then it was back to Japan hitting him, but with Korea in the passenger seat. Then my dear friend Iceland informed me that it's a terrible cliche in fics to be hit by cars, so then it was Korea driving a motorcycle with Japan and hitting him, then the sidecar was added, then China was put in place of Japan. Just a day in the life. But really, I find the mental image hilarious. America-flying in the air and China and Korea wearing those goggles and Korea grinning like a maniac while China is just...not looking impressed. Yeah..._

_So anyway, review please~  
_


	10. Ghosts

_Ha ha, update! I'd like to thank **Peter is Pan**, **ninjafox369**, **Dethf**_**_ck_**_, and **Eternally Me** for reviewing! You guys made me laugh! _

_So anyway, Hong Kong is in this chapter. I named him Li Jinjing, since he doesn't have a name (it means 'upright gold mirror', at least that's what the internet said). Also, this is FULL of so much Russia/America fluff in the first half that I wanted to vomit kittens._

* * *

To say that Alfred was afraid of the dark would be saying inaccurate. Alfred was, by no means, afraid of the dark. No, what Alfred feared were ghosts.

He could never understand why his friends and family made fun of his extreme fear of ghosts. After all, ghosts just seemed to defy logic. They couldn't be killed by normal means, as they were already dead. They could go through solid objects, but in some cases still be able to pick things up and move them, or even injure a living person. They could change the temperature of a room, they could be invisible, no amount of science could properly explain them, and they could, in essence, be found anywhere in the world.

It scared the shit out of Alfred.

So, sitting alone in a darkened hospital room with shadows lurking in the corners and under the bed bothered the American a bit. What bothered him more was that since he was in a hospital, there was no doubt that someone, somewhere, had died in the building and their spirit could be wandering the rooms.

Alfred drew a shaky breath and put his glasses back on, unable to go to sleep. He got up and gingerly made his way to his personal belongings. He dug through his clothes and found his cell phone. The American smiled slightly that he had been able to find it. He hurried back to his bed and dialed his brother's phone number only to be sorely disappointed when his personal belongings started to play Matthew's ring tone.

"Damn it, he forgot it here," Alfred mumbled. He decided that he would try to give his friends a call, hoping that someone would pick up. Starting with the A's…

***

Ivan growled in irritation as his phone rang. He glanced at the clock and realized that it was a bright and sunny two in the morning, which meant it was actually dark out so it really wasn't all that bright or sunny. The Russian let out a string of Russian curses, promising to punch whoever the hell would dare call his house so late and wake him up.

"'_ullo?_" He hissed into the receiver. There was a short moment of silence before the person on the other answered.

"…Hello, Ivan? It's Alfred," the American said quietly. Ivan wasn't sure if he should be concerned or if he should be pissed off.

"Why are you calling me so late, _gyeroy_?" Ivan asked, sounding annoyed and about as tired as he felt, which was really tired.

Alfred paused again before sighing in defeat. "I tried getting a hold of Mattie, but he left his phone here, and I tried calling my friends but they're phones are either off or they're not answering or they hung up on me. So far, you haven't hung up on me, so I guess I'll have to settle with you," he said.

Ivan glared at the phone, hoping that Alfred could just _feel_ its intensity from where he was at. "…How about I hang up now?" Ivan asked with spite.

"No!" Alfred yelped, startling Ivan. The younger coughed awkwardly. "Er, sorry. It's just that you're the only person I can talk to, so…please don't hang up," he asked in a pathetic voice.

Ivan sighed, beaten by the American's tone. "Alright, I won't hang up. But why do you need to talk to someone anyway? Shouldn't you be asleep? I know I was," the Russian murmured and yawned to emphasis his point.

Alfred sighed and didn't answer right away, but when he did, he sounded a bit uncomfortable. "I can't sleep. I just keep expecting a ghost to just come out of thin air and attack me or something."

Ivan furrowed his brows. "…Ghost?" He asked and the younger gave a dramatic sigh.

"Yes, _ghost._ I don't like ghosts very much, and hospitals could just be crawling with them," Alfred said crossly.

The Russian contemplated this for a moment before he smiled wickedly, even though Alfred couldn't see him. "Don't tell me you're _afraid_ of ghosts, _gyeroy_. They aren't even real," he said, highly amused.

"…Sh-shut up. Being afraid of ghosts is better than being afraid of my younger sibling," Alfred shot back heatedly.

When Ivan didn't respond after the first minute or so, Alfred spoke up. "Are you still there!? I didn't mean it, don't hang up on me Ivan," he said, almost pleading.

Ivan snorted. "I'm not going to hang up on you. Yet. But I can honestly say that I don't think I can keep the phone on all night long," the Russian said.

Alfred seemed to contemplate it before sighing. "Then…then can you at least stay on until I fall asleep?" He mumbled, sounding particularly embarrassed.

Ivan chuckled. "Of course, only I don't really know what to talk about," he said, amusement painting his voice.

A silence descended upon them in which Alfred made nervous grunts and Ivan started to fall asleep a little.

"You're falling asleep!" Alfred accused suddenly. Ivan made a sound of agreement and Alfred whined. "Well don't! Find a way to stay up until I fall asleep!" The American demanded.

The Russian snorted in annoyance, but racked his tired mind for some way to appease the American, which would hopefully shut him up. "…Alright, I have an idea, so just be quiet and listen," Ivan ordered.

When he was sure that Alfred wasn't going to say something stupid and interrupt him, Ivan started to do something crazy and completely out of his character. He started to sing.

"_Polyushko-pole, polyushko, shiroko pole. Edut po polyu geroi, eh, da krasnoj armii geroi."_

Ivan paused, waiting for Alfred's reaction. When the American gave a slight hum, Ivan decided that he'd continue.

"_Devushki plachut, devushkam sevodnya grustno, milyj nadolgo uehal, eh, da milyj v armiyu uehal. Devushki, glyan'te, glyan'te na dorogu nashu, v'yotsya dal'nyaya doroga, eh, da razvesyolaya doroga. Tol'ko mi vidim, vidim mi seduyu tuchu, vrazh'ya zloba iz-za lesa, eh, da vrazh'ya zloba, slovno tucha."_

Ivan paused again. He was sorely disappointed to hear Alfred mutter a very small "Go on", but at the same time, he was strangely pleased because the American wasn't being his annoying self or complaining that he couldn't understand anything Ivan was saying.

"_Eh, devushki, glyan'te, mi vraga prinyat' gotovy, nashi koni bystronogi, eh, da nashi tanki bystrokhodny. Eh, pust' zhe v kolkhoze druzhnaya kipit rabota, mi dozorney sevodnya, eh, da mi sevodnya chasovye."_

Ivan finished the song, waiting for Alfred to make some rude comment or something. When it didn't come, the Russian frowned then realized he could hear snoring from the other end. Alfred had fallen asleep.

The Russian smiled then quickly hung up, resisting the urge to violently destroy the phone which woke him up at two in the morning only for him to have to sing lullabies to idiotic Americans. Ivan vowed that he would never speak of this again and if Alfred ever brought it up, Ivan would punch him in the face.

***

Natalia knew that she couldn't touch the American swine known as Alfred F. Jones herself. Sure, she _could_ technically touch him, but at the same time she risked too much by messing with him herself. If her brother really did have some sort of (obviously mislead) feelings for Alfred and she maimed and/or killed him, there was a chance that Ivan would hate her.

And Natalia would sooner die than have Ivan hate her.

So with that in mind, she had to find a way to get Alfred out of the picture without actually doing it herself. Luckily, she'd heard some pretty promising rumors around school about one mister Li Jinjing.

Li Jinjing was a transfer student from Hong Kong who never said anything and had the emotional amplitude of a potato. Rumor had it that Li had a thing for fireworks and explosives; in other words, he was a bit of a pyro. Another rumor was that he was the son of the leader of the Chinese mafia.

When lunch rolled around, Natalia approached the Asian who was eating by himself. She sat down in front of him and he glanced up with what might have been considered a questioning look.

Natalia stared back. "Is it true that you have power within the Chinese mafia?" She asked, getting straight to the point.

Li stared at her, but didn't reply. Natalia narrowed her eyes, but had a strange feeling in the back of her mind. It was almost like Li was telling her it depended on who was asking and why.

She decided to go with this strange feeling. "You see, I have a job that I would like done. I can pay for it," she stated.

Li looked from her to his plate of uneaten food then back to her. 'What can you pay and what needs to be done?'

Natalia's lips twitched. Of course she wasn't sure if that was _really_ what Li was thinking, but for some reason she _knew_ that's what he was asking. "I'd much rather know what price you'd place on my job. You see, I want this…_American swine_ gone. I don't care if he gets run out of town or if he ends up dead in a ditch, I just want him _gone_. What price would you place on it?"

Li fiddled his thumbs. 'I like how you think. Just get me a box of fireworks and I'll take care of the rest.'

Natalia smirked. "Good. I'm glad we have reached this agreement."

* * *

_Oh dear! Natalia is getting the mafia involved! And Hong Kong totally has telepathy, at least I think he does. Oh, and Korea and China will appear sometime in the future. Don't lose faith in their motorcycle-sidecar combo!_

_The song Ivan sang was a pretty famous song, "Polyushke Pole" which has different versions done by different people. Thanks **chronoskitty** for suggesting it! I personally love this song. Oh, and I found the lyrics on the internet, so hopefully lyricwiki didn't lie to me.  
_

_Review please~  
_


	11. Alfred Says Thanks

_I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! (and after all of you said that I was a quick updater too...) There was that whole problem with converting which seems to be fixed. But! There's good news! I'm posting TWO new chapters today!_

_And so many people reviewed! I'm so happy! :D So thank you **Dethfck**, **ninjafox369**, **xgravigirlxl**, **chronoskitty**, **Smeet**, **Impervious Marr**, **Peter is Pan**, **Liebchen-chan**, **Ivan Braginsky**, and **Schaden-freude** for reviewing! You guys rock! :D_

* * *

Ivan knew something was up as soon as he walked down the stairs and saw Alfred, who was there usually early, talking to Toris in a hushed whisper. Ivan never thought that the American could be capable of whispering, but that wasn't what really interested the Russian. He remembered that Alfred was allowed to leave the hospital at seven. It was a little after half-past seven now, so that meant the American had gone straight to the radio station from the hospital.

Toris nodded quickly and hurried downstairs to the record library and Alfred looked like he was quite proud of himself. Ivan decided to alert the younger blond of his presence with a slight cough. Alfred looked over, startled, but smiled cheerfully when he saw the Russian.

"Good mornin' Ivan!" Alfred greeted.

Ivan scrutinized the American for a moment. "…_Dobraye utra, gyeroy._ Does your brother know you're here?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Alfred smiled sheepishly. "No, but I'm sure he'll figure out where to find me," he said nonchalantly.

Ivan was about to comment on how cruel it was to basically disappear from a hospital without bothering to alert the high-strung Canadian when Toris came back up from the record library carrying a box. Ivan raised an eyebrow and Alfred got an excited smile on his face.

"Thanks a bunch, Toris! I can take them from here," the younger blond said, taking the box from the brunet. Toris gave him a slight smile and Ivan an acknowledging nod before heading quickly back to his office.

Ivan gave Alfred a questioning look. "What's going on, _gyeroy_?" The Russian asked with distrust.

The American laughed loudly and carried the box into the broadcasting room, apparently expecting Ivan to follow. Ivan sighed in annoyance at being ignored, but followed Alfred anyway.

***

Matthew wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel happy when he found out the whereabouts of his brother or if he was supposed to be in a blind fury. He had gone to the hospital to pick up Alfred only to find that the American had absconded and didn't even _bother_ to inform Matthew.

The Canadian had looked around in a state of panic, searching all of Alfred's usual haunts. However, the older blond wasn't at any of them, which just caused Matthew to almost have a heart attack.

Luckily for the Canadian's mind, body, soul and heart condition, Toris had enough sense to call and let Matthew know that his brother was at the radio station. Matthew was extremely relived, but he couldn't understand why Alfred would want to go to the station as opposed to going home and eating ice cream and hamburgers (which Alfred had stated he'd do several times during Matthew's visit).

Toris let Matthew enter the station with a joke that he should just make the Canadian a key. The blond laughed halfheartedly, but his mind was somewhere else. The Lithuanian seemed to notice this and gave Matthew an understanding smile.

"Don't worry, Matthew. Alfred is just in the broadcasting room," the brunet said. His lips twitched into a smile and he nodded towards the break room. "He kicked Ivan out, so you can go talk to him and ask him about Alfred. He's back there," Toris said with a bizarre smile, as if he knew some sort of secret. Matthew gave a nod and slowly made his way to the break room.

The Canadian entered the room and he immediately noticed Ivan sitting at the table. He was frowning at a radio that was placed on the table, looking a little putout and annoyed. Matthew cleared his throat and Ivan shot him a surprised look.

"Ah, hello Matthew? I guess Alfred was right…" Ivan mumbled and the Canadian gave an annoyed snort. 'Alfred was right', indeed.

Matthew sat down across from the Russian and gave him a timid smile. "Good morning, Ivan. Why are you here and not in the broadcasting room, eh?" He asked politely, then cringed slightly at the scary and slightly pissed off smile that Ivan gave him.

"Your brother kicked me out. He said that he was going to get me the day off, or some other nonsense. He had better not screw up," the Russian said with a voice that suggested that he'd beat Alfred with a pipe or something if the American had the gall to screw up.

Matthew laughed nervously. "I'm sure he'll do fine by himself," he said assuredly, but not really believing it himself.

The commercial about fireworks that was on ended and Alfred's cheerful voice suddenly filled the room. "Good morning all! Today is September XX, 20XX! This is your DJ, Alfred F. Jones and I'm manning the broadcast all by myself today! Now before I get started with the news and stuff, I just wanted to say…thanks Ivan," Alfred said, actually sounding embarrassed and Matthew could practically _feel _the blush on his brother's face through the radio. Matthew also noted that Ivan visibly stiffened.

"I know that, you know, what ya did for me last night really didn't mean much to you, but I, um, I," Alfred seemed to be trying to find the right words to whatever he was saying. Matthew stared at Ivan, wondering just what the Russian did that could possibly have his brother seriously _thanking_ him. It must have been pretty impressive.

"It…means a lot to me that you put up with me and all and that you...did that…thing you did, so yeah…" Alfred said lamely. Matthew raised an eyebrow, but chose not to ask Ivan about it, yet. After all, the Russian was staring at the radio as if it had just turned into Transformer or something.

Alfred gave an awkward cough. "Okay, yeah so…I'm gonna play a song for _you_ now. The song's called '_Davai za'_ by Lube," the American said cheerfully.

The song came on and Matthew immediately realized that it was a Russian song. He dared chance a look at Ivan and rewarded with the sight of the Russian looking completely flabbergasted with a very slight blush dusting his cheeks.

Before the Canadian had an opportunity to ask Ivan what the hell was going on, said man promptly bitch slapped the radio off the table and hurried out of the room, a look of complete mortification on his face.

Matthew stared at the fallen radio and furrowed his brows. That was…_strange_. Even by Alfred's standards. Alfred sincerely thanking someone was weird, but the fact was made stranger since the American had stated (on more than one occasion) that he hated that 'commie bastard'. And Ivan having such a reaction was pretty weird too. Maybe there was something going on that the Canadian didn't know about…

And Matthew quickly decided that it was too early in the morning for his mind to take a stroll down _that_ particular path. He'd think about later.

***

Arthur's fluttered open and he yawned. He looked around tiredly and noticed that it seemed like a lovely morning to wake up to. The sun was shining, birds were singing outside, Francis was lying in bed next to him, there was tea just waiting to be made…wait. Francis was lying next to him?

The Brit let out a totally unmanly scream and flung himself out of the bed as if was on fire. His scream apparently woke up the Frenchman, who bolted awake and gave Arthur a look of concern. "What's wrong, _mon cheri_?" Francis asked, stifling a yawn.

Arthur gave him a look of complete horror. "What the bloody hell are you _doing_ in _my_ _bed_, you bleeding git!?" The Brit shouted.

Francis gave him a smug grin. "It's not that hard to find your spare key. Really, you should hide it somewhere better than under the welcome mat," he said casually as if he was talking about the weather (which was basically part of his job, so he was pretty good at doing that).

Arthur gave Francis a venomous glare. "I'll be sure to remember and hide it somewhere else. But what I'd really like to know is _why are you in my bed_?" The Brit hissed.

Francis gave him a sunny smile. "Ah, that is because I wanted to talk to you about a promotional idea, but you were asleep. You looked so cute that I didn't have the heart to wake you up. So, I just decided to wait until you woke up on your own accord," the older blond explained.

Arthur gave him a blank look. "So you had to get into the bed as well?"

"_Oui_."

"You couldn't just wait in the living room or somewhere, like a normal person. You _had_ to get into the same bed?"

"_Oui._ I don't know why you're getting so upset, _cheri_. I was very good, I didn't try to touch you once," Francis informed with some strange hint of pride.

Arthur's face hardened. He stared at the Frenchman for a moment before slugging him in the face and walking away. What he needed was some tea. Mixed with alcohol. Alcohol tea didn't exactly sound like a good way to start the morning but neither was waking up in the same bed as Francis.

* * *

_"Dobraye utra" - _Russian for _"Good morning". I'd like to thank chronoskitty for the song in this one. Also, did anyone notice that the whole France-England bit at the end was pretty much a filler? :D_


	12. I Will Dub Thee Ruski

_And here's the next chapter! Oh joy! Plot formation! And my fail!Russian! :D_

* * *

Alfred wasn't sure what he'd done wrong. The best he could come up with was that he had broken some kind of taboo Russian thing that he had never heard about before. After the American had finished the broadcast and Katyusha had come in, he went to find Ivan and see what he thought of Alfred's unusual and unusually sincere thank-you.

He had found the Russian in the record library, basically avoiding him. When Alfred had asked what he thought of his broadcast, Ivan had gotten a strange look on his face and replied in Russian. This lead to Alfred complaining about not understanding Russian and Ivan continuing to speak in Russian just to spite the American.

"Damn it, Ivan!" Alfred cursed in anger. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave the Russian a hard look. "Stop saying crap in Russian! Speak English, I know you can!"

Ivan gave him an eerie smile that was mixed with annoyance. "_Nyet. Ya sirditih s tih, idiot,"_ he said, egging the younger blond on.

Alfred growled. "Did you just call me an idiot!?"

Ivan smirked. "_Da. Vidit'? Tih __**moch'**__ uchit'."_

Alfred's face turned as red as the red in his flag in pure American rage. "Stop speaking in Russian already, you-you god damn…_Ruski_!" He shouted. Really, he didn't know what 'ruski' meant, but he'd heard it be used when people were talking about Russians, so maybe it was an offensive word like 'yank' would be for an American.

Ivan stopped smiling and gave Alfred an unreadable look. "…What did you call me?"

The younger blond smiled in triumph. "I called you a Ruski! What're you gonna do 'bout it?" Alfred asked cockily, pleased that he'd offended Ivan so much that he had stopped playing his little 'Speak Russian to Piss Off Alfred' game.

The Russian looked like he was trying to think of a good way to word his response. "_Gyeroy…_You don't know what '_Ruski_' means, do you?" Ivan asked, sounding slightly amused.

Alfred pouted. "…Yes! It's some derogatory word for a Russian, right?"

Ivan snorted, but his lips twitched slightly, as if he was trying not to laugh. "Sure, if you say so. I didn't know you knew sure big words, _gyeroy_," he commented offhandedly and Alfred shot him a dirty look.

"Shut up, _ruski_."

"Not a chance, _gyeroy._"

They stared each other down, Alfred glaring and Ivan smiling innocently, until Alfred gave a defeated sigh. "Whatever. Why are you being such an ass? I tried to be nice to you and everything!" Alfred complained.

Ivan frowned slightly then sighed. "A simple 'thank-you' would have sufficed, but no. Not for Alfred F. Jones. You just _had_ to do it on a live broadcast that _everyone_ and their grandma could have heard. Gilbert or one of my other enemies could have heard and tried to target you again. Natalia could have heard! No telling what she would do. She might get the mafia after you or something," Ivan ranted, feeling slightly pissed off at the thought of anyone _daring_ to target Alfred.

The American gave Ivan a strange look before he started to laugh loudly. "Seriously? The _mafia_? I kind of doubt that. But really Ivan, you don't have to worry 'bout me. I can take care of myself. I am the hero, after all," Alfred said confidently.

Ivan smiled slightly. "I suppose. Just don't come crying to me if Natalia comes after you with a knife," he said jokingly. But not really.

***

Matthew took several calming breaths, trying to get the blush off his face. He was angry with himself for running away like he did. Katyusha said something that made the room feel far too hot, even though it was completely innocent and Matthew excused himself to go outside (bringing his cell phone, just in case. He'd learnt from his last mistake).

After several minutes of breathing and getting his face back to its normal color, the Canadian felt ready to go back in. But before he could, some strange sounding honk came from up the road and a motorcycle-sidecar combo sped by.

There was a sudden shout of recognition, and the vehicle stopped and slowly went in reverse. It stopped in front the shocked Canadian. The driver, who looked Korean and had on motorcycle goggles, gave the blond a wide smile while the male in the sidecar, who looked Chinese and also donned motorcycle goggles, gave him the once-over.

The Korean spoke up first. "Hey! I know you! I ran you over yesterday!" He said cheerfully.

Matthew gave him an incredulous look. "Y-you, I, no. You didn't. You must be the guy who ran my-my brother over. Yeah…" The Canadian said, trying to figure out how exactly he was supposed to respond to that. What an awkward way to start a conversation.

The Korean frowned slightly but then shrugged his shoulders and smiled at the blond. "Oh! Okay then, your brother! That's probably why you look alike. Anyway, my name is Im Yong Soo, but you can call me Korea!" Im Yong Soo, _Korea_, said. He pointed at the Chinese man next to him. "And this is my buddy, Wang Yao. We're traveling psychics!" Korea proclaimed loudly.

Yao made a face. "Shut up –aru. I'm the psychic, you just drive me around. You're my chauffeur," he said with annoyance.

Matthew wasn't sure what to make of this. Really, he could find fault with almost everything Korea had said, starting with calling himself Korea. It's not like he went around calling himself _Canada_ or anything like that. How lame. Plus, that thing about Yao being a psychic… "If you're a psychic, why didn't you, like, foresee hitting my brother?" The Canadian asked.

Korea pouted. "Why does it matter? Don't ask him such stupid questions! He's gonna be the next Confucius or Nostradamus or something! He doesn't have to explain himself to you," he shouted.

Yao hit him on the back of the head. "Shut up –aru! It's a good question to ask!" He stated crossly. He turned to Matthew with a polite smile. "Sorry about that –aru. You see, Alfred getting put into the hospital was an important event which will lead to some bad things, which lead to some worse things, which then lead to wonderful things –aru. Take my advice; put you and Alfred's personal belongings in storage. And do it soon, like, today –aru," Yao said cryptically.

Korea gave him an adoring look. "That's so cool Yao! You're so cool!"

Yao snorted. "Of course I am –aru," he turned his attention to the deeply confused Canadian, "Well, we'll take our leave –aru. We'll see you around Matthew. Good bye and good luck –aru!" He shouted as Korea sped off.

Matthew stared after them, eyebrows furrowed as he realized something...He…never told them his or Alfred's name.

He sighed in defeat. "I guess I'll take his advice," his mumbled to himself. Really, it was to protect his stuff from those two crazy Asians. If they knew his and Alfred's names, then they probably knew where they lived and they could break-in or something.

Matthew wondered vaguely why all the weird shit happened to him.

***

Li wasn't very surprised to see Natalia stomping towards him with a box in her arms and a furious expression on her face. Then again, he wasn't ever really surprised by anything.

Natalia slammed the box down in front of him. "_Here_," she hissed, her face an unhealthy shade of red.

Li gave her a blank look. 'What's wrong?' He wondered in his mind. He was minutely surprised when she actually answered.

"I heard that American _swine_ on the radio this morning and he getting _too close _to _my_ brother," she informed with venom and she pointed vaguely to a set of ear buds hanging out of her pocket. Li was forced to assume that they were connected to some type of portable radio.

Really, he wasn't sure what to big deal was. So what if her brother was being friendly with another male? Li decided that it was just a path of thought he really didn't want to go down, and besides, a customer is a customer. As long as they can pay, don't ask questions.

Though, one thing about Natalia was quite strange to the Asian. It seemed as though she could understand his difficult non-language, a feat that most people could never accomplish in their lifetimes. Natalia broke Li out of his musings.

"When will you be able to get him?" She asked with a clipped tone.

Li tilted his head to the side slightly. 'Either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.'

Natalia nodded, but she still didn't seem pleased. She walked off and Li looked into the box to inspect his payment. He noted that they were the good kind of fireworks that went into the sky and everything. If he had the ability to show emotion, he would have laughed out loud.

Li decided not to inform the girl that, in her blind rage, she completely overlooked the fact that the 'American swine' was only supposed to be there for a week, and that week was almost over. But Li wasn't about to tell her and give up such nice fireworks. Plus, what did it matter to him if he was, as they say, beating a dead dog?

* * *

"_Nyet. Ya sirditih s tih, idiot."- Russian for "No. I'm angry with you, idiot."_

_"Da. Vidit'? Tih moch' uchit'." - Russian for "Yes. See? You can learn."_

_And "Ruski" is the Russian word for a Russian male. It would be like calling Alfred 'American'. Also, 'yank'...I know there are other impolite words for other people, but I didn't want to offend anyone so I used this one. I'm a United-Statesian and I'm not offended by yank so yeah... Oh! And Korea! I don't know if his name is Yong Soo or just Soo or what. So it's Korea._

_Review please~  
_


	13. Boring Filler

_Wow, I'm on a roll. This is kinda like a filler chapter. Also, this is day six. So the next chapter will basically end Alfred's 'week', but it's not the end of the story. Anyway, I'd like to thank **Smeet**, **chronoskitty**, **ninjafox369**, **Dethfck**, and **Impervious Marr** for reviewing! _

* * *

Matthew wasn't sure how to react to his brother's strange behavior. The older blond had woken early and was ready to go to the radio station before the Canadian was even conscious and he talked about his plans for the day and about seeing Ivan. Now Matthew wasn't too sure about this, but he had always thought that if you hated someone, you tend not to want to see them. This didn't seem to be the case for Alfred.

The more Matthew thought about it, the more he grew suspicious of his brother. He stared at the file in his hands, lost in his own thoughts while Toris and Katyusha were chatting with each other. Katyusha seemed to notice Matthew's distracted face and gave the Canadian a concerned frown.

"Are you okay Matthew? Something seems to be bothering you," she said with worry. Matthew instantly felt guilty for making the Ukrainian become concerned.

He waved it off and smiled assuredly. "No, I'm fine. Just thinking, eh," he said. It least he wasn't really lying, just telling a half-truth.

Katyusha seemed to not believe him, and decided to let him know of her disbelief. "Are you sure? I'm sure you'll feel better if you tell us," she said gently and Toris nodded in agreement.

Matthew sighed in defeat. "Okay, but you two can't tell anyone this," he started. They nodded in understanding and the Canadian continued. "Okay, well…I think there's something going on with my brother. I mean, he gets excited about seeing Ivan, who he supposedly hates, and then there was that whole public thank-you thing yesterday. I mean, Alfred isn't even that sincere with his friends!" Matthew ranted.

Toris and Katyusha shared a meaningful look and Katyusha giggled slightly. "Oh? So it isn't just my little brother acting odd then?" She asked and the brunet smiled.

Matthew gave them a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Katyusha smiled. "Well you see, Ivan has been acting strange too. He talks about Alfred and actually seems to care about his well-being, among other things. He hasn't acted that way since Alexandr," she said, the last part directed at Toris who nodded in agreement.

The younger blond tilted his head to the side. "Alexandr? Who's that?" He asked and Katyusha giggled again.

"That was Ivan's last boyfriend," she informed. "He was from Kazakhstan, and he was such a sweetie. He tried to be friends with everyone," she said fondly. Matthew felt a bit of jealousy, but that was mostly suppressed by the sudden shock he felt.

Toris nodded. "That he did. He and Ivan didn't always get along, but with Alexandr's forgiving personality and with Ivan actually caring about him, they tended to work through whatever problems they had," he said with a fond tint also in his voice.

Matthew stared at the two with wide-eyes, trying to figure out which of his questions to vocalize. He decided to go with the more obvious one. "Ivan's gay?"

Toris chuckled with a slight nervousness. "Don't let Natalia hear you say that. She absolutely hated Alexandr and refuses to believe that Ivan likes men. She stabbed me with a pen when I said that too loudly," he mumbled, obviously remembering _that_ unpleasant memory.

Matthew furrowed his brows, unsure what exactly he should think. First thought, Natalia was scary and he needed to avoid her at all costs from now on. Second thought, Alfred wasn't gay (not to his knowledge) so if Ivan really _did_ like his brother, there'd certainly be problems. Third thought, "What happened to Alexandr then?" He asked curiously.

Katyusha and Toris both frowned, but the brunet spoke first. "He went back to Kazakhstan because of some family issue. He apparently met a lovely woman from Kyrgyzstan and they were married," he said curtly.

Matthew frowned. "Poor Ivan. He must have been pretty upset," he commented.

Katyusha shrugged her shoulders. "It was a long time ago. He's over it now," she said simply.

The Canadian still felt bad for the Russian, even if it was a long time ago. He remembered how upset Alfred had been when Maria broke up with him, and he was sure that his brother wasn't quite over that yet.

Toris and Katyusha, apparently thinking that it was the end of that conversation, started to talk about various topics like the television. Mathew nodded occasionally, as if he was listening to them, but his mind was somewhere else completely.

***

Li was putting his new fireworks away in an orderly manner. Things that shoot into the sky and makes bright colors in one certain box, while things that shoot into the sky and make a lot of noise in a different box. To say to Li had plenty of practice when it came to sorting his fireworks would be an understatement.

He found a bundle of Roman candles at the bottom of the box and smiled widely. Or at least, he smiled widely by _his_ terms. Most people would just think his lips twitched slightly or something.

Even though Li loved all kinds of fireworks, his favorites were Roman candles. They weren't particularly bright or loud or colorful, but they still were near and dear to his heart. He could hold them and shoot people and buildings with them, so they gave him an added thrill that normal fireworks couldn't do.

Li stared at the Roman candles that Natalia have given him as part of her payment, and the gears in his head started turning. He could use these for his upcoming job. Shoot them at the 'American swine' or maybe start some type of fire…

A light bulb flickered on in his head, metaphorically of course. He could not only complete his job, he could also get the pleasure of seeing a house go up in flames, which was very a fulfilling sight.

Li giggled in excitement (mentally, of course) and started to plot out his devious plan. Tomorrow would be a good day. For him, at least.

***

Yao took a sip of tea and frowned. He felt some seriously bad vibes and was a little worried about the safety of Alfred and Matthew, but he knew it would turn out fine. After all, Matthew had taken his advice and moved most of their personal belongings into storage, so the siblings wouldn't be nearly as devastated by the future. Plus, he knew that everything would work out fine.

Probably.

There was a suddenly knocking on his door and Im Yong Soo kicked the door open without waiting for Yao's permission. "Yao! You'll never believe what I just heard!" Korea yelled cheerfully.

Yao gave him an unimpressed stare and Korea pouted. "Okay fine! Then you already know. God, you psychics ruin all my fun!" He complained.

Yao smirked. "Of course –aru. What? Did you think we're supposed to be fun –aru?"

Korea smirked back at him with an almost predatory gleam in his eyes. "Is that so?" He asked and Yao gulped.

"Don't you dare –aru," the Chinese man hissed, but blushed slightly at the vision he got.

Korea snickered and tackled Yao to the ground, shouting something about claiming aniki's boobs. Just a day in the life of Wang Yao.

* * *

_Yeah, like I said 'filler chapter'. Although, I did manage to work in more stuff about the ominous future and a bit about Ivan's past. Note: Alexandr is my OC for Kazakhstan, if ya couldn't tell. If my drawings skills didn't equal poo, I'd totally make a picture of him and stuff. But that's not the case. :D_

_Anyway, review please~  
_


	14. End of the Week

_Hi everyone! Sorry that this took as long as it did and that it's kinda short. I couldn't figure out how I was gonna write it...Anyway, I'd like to thank _**_Peter is Pan_**_, **chronoskitty**, **Ivan Braginsky**, **Commander of Dreams**, and **Diddernetten** for reviewing!_

_And I'd like everyone to know that from now on, any reviews I get I'll PM you a reply (even if it's just a thank you). I feel as though I'm being too aloof to you readers, so I plan to fix that. Also, I'm sorry if Alfred's speech bothers anyone in this (I'm such a gayfer for accents and I couldn't help myself). So anyway, please enjoy~_

_

* * *

  
_

Ivan turned off his microphone and sighed. Since Alfred was late, Ivan had to start the broadcast by himself. It annoyed the Russian a bit, really. This would be Alfred's last day at the radio station and idiot chose today to be late. Though, even with Alfred being late, Ivan was happy. After today, he wouldn't have to deal with Alfred and his pig-headed, loud, stupid, childish, optimistic, and cheerful…and…sunny personality anymore.

And this certainly didn't dishearten Ivan in any way, shape or form. _Really_.

The Russian stood up with a sigh and made his way towards the break room. He needed a break and that's what the break room is for, after all.

When he entered the room, he noted his older sister was talking quickly in a hushed tone into a phone. He idly wondered who she was talking to and got a glass of water. Katyusha turned to him and he realized she was on the verge of tears. Ivan shot her a questioning look and she quickly handed the phone to him.

She rubbed her eyes, wiping away her tears. "It's Matthew," she sniffed and bit her lip.

Ivan frowned. "Hello? Matthew?" He asked and heard a sigh from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, it's me, eh," the Canadian replied in a very tired tone.

This bothered Ivan a bit. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" He asked, really hoping that something _didn't_ happen. The last time neither of the siblings showed up, Alfred had been in a freak motorcycle accident and landed in the hospital.

Matthew paused and Ivan could hear Alfred complaining about 'crazy ass Asians'. "Um, yeah. Something did happen. You see, earlier this morning, some guy broke into our house and started shooting, like, fireworks or something at us. …The house was burned down," he said somberly.

Ivan felt all the blood drain from his face. Matthew, taking his silence as for what it was, spoke up. "Don't worry! Alfred is fine! He's just a little…upset, eh," he reassured and Ivan relaxed. Then he became annoyed. Why did Matthew think he was worried about _Alfred?_

As if on cue, Alfred's voice came through the phone. "'s that Ivan? Lemme talk to 'im," the American demanded. The Russian noted that, for some strange reason, Alfred's voice had taken on a bit of a southern tint. It was a little bothersome, but that wasn't really important at the moment.

"Ivan? Y' won' believe it! Th's mornin' ther' was a knockin' on the door, an' when Mattie answered it, some crazy Asian kid done started shootin' off a Rom'n candle!" Alfred said with an obvious bit of anger and disbelief.

The Russian frowned and felt his eye twitch. "Well, that certainly is something. Alfred?"

But the American continued, as if he didn't hear the Russian. "An' then th' whole house started up on fire! Scarred th' shit outta me, really. But luck'ly, Mattie put all 'ur stuff in storage night a'fore. I woulda been real u'set if mor' than jus' th' house burned down. Still can't figur' out how he knew tah put 'ur stuff in storage 'hough," Alfred continued.

Ivan twitched again. "Alfred? Could you please -?"

"But now we don' have nowher' tah go. Mattie's awful worried, but I reckin' we can find ourselves a place tah stay," Alfred said. Ivan was positive that the American was ignoring him on purpose.

"_Alfred_," the Russian hissed. The younger blond gave a small hum of acknowledgment and Ivan almost sighed in relief. "Please. Stop. Talking. Like. That," he said slowly.

He could practically hear the American's confusion through the phone. "Lik' wut?"

Before Ivan had a chance to throw the phone out the window, there was a yelp and some shuffling from the other end.

Matthew's voice came on. "Sorry about that, eh! Alfred talks like that when he's upset sometimes," the Canadian explained. Ivan could hear Alfred in the background asking "Talks lik' wut?"

Matthew shushed him and gave a slight sigh. "Right, so we're okay. Just a…freak accident," he mumbled. Alfred chimed in with a "Ain't no freak acc'dent!" only to be shushed by his brother again.

Katyusha tapped Ivan gently on the shoulder until he gave her his attention. She smiled shyly and blushed a bit. "Well, if they don't have a place to stay, maybe they can live here until they do?" She suggested.

The Russian stared at her as if she'd grown three heads. _Alfred_ staying at _his _house? He could barely stand talking to the American over the phone let alone having him _live_ at his house.

Ivan opened his mouth to reject such an outrageous idea, but the look on his older sister's face stopped him. She looked so…pleading, with teary, kicked-puppy eyes and oh, she was pouting too. The Russian silently cursed in his mind, then sighed in defeat.

"Matthew?" Ivan asked, getting the Canadian's attention, "How about you and Alfred come live here until you can find another home?"

There was a pause on the other side, and then Matthew asked his brother his opinion on the matter. After another pause, Alfred flat-out refused. There was more shuffling and Ivan swore he heard Matthew shooting death rays at the American and Alfred made a really annoying whining sound.

Suddenly, one of the siblings cleared his throat. "Thank you! That's a really generous for you to do, eh," Matthew said cheerfully. "We'll be right over, bye."

Ivan grunted and hung up the phone. He shot Katyusha an annoyed look to which she just smiled cheerfully at, no trace of her previous distress. That's around the time that Ivan realized that he'd been totally played.

***

Natalia was in a foul mood. Really, it was more of a murderous mood, but they were close to the same thing for her. She had come home in a generally good mood, but then she saw the one thing that she _didn't_ want to see.

_Alfred F. Jones._

Soon, she found out that a mysterious, firework-wielding Asian (no doubt Li) had burned Matthew and _Alfred's_ house down and they would now be living in the same house as her, and worse, the same house as _Ivan_.

Katyusha gave her a smile, seemingly obvious to the girl's inner fury. "We were just trying to figure out where they can sleep. We think they should stay in Ivan's room, since they're all boys," she explained cheerfully.

Natalia shot the idiotic American a glare. "_NO._ They can sleep in my room, I'll just move in with Katyusha," she stated coldly. A chill settled over the room.

Katyusha laughed nervously. "Oh, okay then. That sounds like a good idea too," she said meekly.

Natalia nodded and left to her new shared room without another word. Tomorrow, she would corner Li and he would be _extremely _sorry.

* * *

_Oh noes. Yeah, this was kinda short. My friend Iceland mentioned firework craziness today, and I realized that I just _point to_ firework craziness. There really isn't any. But don't worry! I plan on fixing that later... :D_

_Also, that poll is closed! Yay! Thanks to all of you who voted! I'm gonna write "Lost in the Translations", but if you're looking forward to that, try not to be. I don't think any of you will see it for quite a while. I'm writing it all out first, then I'll post it when I can so it's gonna be slow as molasses. :/_

_Anyway, review please~  
_


	15. Did I Poison Your Kasha?

_Ah, thank you to all of you who reviewed! If I were an animal, you'd all be my blood. :D_

_So anyway, here's this kinda fluffy chapter. Yay!  
_

* * *

Alfred stretched and blindly groped for his glasses while holding back a yawn. He located his glasses and glanced around at the room. Then he froze. This certainly wasn't _his_ room. _What the hell?_

Then the American remembered the previous day's happens and he groaned. He didn't want to _live_ with _Ivan_. And that sounded kind of lewd, if Alfred really stopped to think about it. So he didn't.

This was all Matthew's fault, the American decided. If he hadn't signed Alfred up for that damn contest, he could be in his own bed in his own house and he would have never met the Russian. In a way, that made Alfred a little depressed, but it was too early in the morning to care about that so it was still Matthew's fault.

Just as Alfred was about to violently wake up his brother in vengeance, he detected the smell of something cooking. He stopped in his tracks and smiled widely. Matthew could wait. It seemed as though somebody was cooking breakfast, and Alfred would certainly be sure to get some.

He walked out of the room and tried to remember which door lead to the kitchen. There were several doors on the second floor of the radio station. On one side was Ivan's room, Natalia's old room, and Katyusha's room. On the other side was the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Really, it was a great deal like a small apartment, other than the downstairs radio station that most apartments didn't possess.

Alfred when through the appropriate door and got hit by the smell of…something. It smelt good, whatever it was. But any hopes he had for the food went quickly down the drain when he saw who was cooking it.

"Ivan?"

The Russian turned away from the stove and smiled at the surprised blond. "_Dobroe utro, gyeroy_," he greeted cheerfully.

Alfred glared at him. "Stop calling me that you, you _ruski_," the blond grumbled and sat down at the small kitchen table.

Ivan gave him a strange look and his lips twitched slightly. "When do you plan to quit calling me that?"

Alfred snorted. "When you stop calling me 'gyeroy'. What does that even mean?" The younger blond asked, annoyance etched into his face.

Ivan just gave him another smile and went back to cooking, much to the American's anger. "Hey! Don't ignore me!" Alfred demanded. The Russian, however, continued to ignore him.

Alfred was about to throw something heavy at the back of Ivan's head when said male turned around and placed a bowl of sweet-smelling gray slop in front of him. Alfred looked from the bowl to Ivan then back to the bowl again.

"What is this?" Alfred asked finally and he stared at Ivan with suspicion.

Ivan smiled slightly and sat down with a bowl of his own. "It's _kasha_. Don't worry, it's not going to attack you or anything," he assured, noticing the way Alfred was staring at it.

The American gave a disbelieving hum. "It looks more like porridge to me," he stated and poked at the food with his spoon.

Ivan rolled his eyes and frowned in irritation. "It's pretty much the same thing," the Russian replied and started to eat his.

Alfred gave the food a wary look before trying it. His eyes widened and he gave Ivan a surprised look. "It's pretty good," he said, amazed. Ivan could cook? That was unexpected.

The older male snorted. "Of course it is. Why would I make a disgusting tasting meal?"

Alfred glared at him. "Just to spite me," he replied.

Ivan laughed and patted the American on the head. "Oh? You think you're so important to me that I'd feed everyone, including myself, garbage just to get to you?" The Russian asked with mirth.

The younger blond pouted and blushed slightly. "Probably, cause you're just an asshole like that."

Ivan held his hand over his heart in mock hurt. "Oh _gyeroy_, you injure me so. I certainly would do no such thing."

Alfred rolled his eyes. "I bet you would, if you ever got the chance. Probably poison me if you got the chance too."

Ivan gave the American a disturbing smile. Alfred shivered and sent a weak glare at the Russian. "And stop doing that! It's creepy, you…_ruski_. You're so annoying," the younger blond complained.

Ivan chuckled and tousled Alfred's hair. "I love you too," he replied dryly. Alfred flushed, but chose to ignore the heat on his cheeks and Ivan in favorite of eating his breakfast.

***

Li was upset, even if a normal person couldn't tell it.

He found out that his plan to scare Alfred off had backfired in the worst way. Natalia had confronted the Asian while at school and he had almost lost his hand, among other parts of his anatomy. No doubt he had at least lost some of his hair when Natalia had tried to rip said hair out of his scalp and he probably lost several years from his life just from the encounter.

Li really needed to find some sort of solace, at least to make better the episode with Natalia. He checked his bag and not-smiled at a lone Roman candle which he hadn't shot off at Alfred, Alfred's brother, or Alfred's house.

He gave the firework a not-contemplative look, and tried to decide what he'd do with it.

The answer arrived much sooner than Li would have thought when an albino ran into him. The Asian not-glared at the man, who seemed panicked, almost as if he was already running away from someone. Li also noticed that he seemed to be bleeding from the head, as if something heavy hit him, like a frying pan or something.

Li quickly and quietly lit the Roman candle and aimed it at the albino. Before the albino even had a chance to realize that what was happening, the firework started to go off. The albino screamed in surprise more than pain and started to cuss and run off with Li hot on his heels.

This made Li's day just slightly better.

* * *

_Poor Gilbert. But don't fear, he'll be in this later. And he'll have more villainous roles. :D_

Also, Ivan says 'good morning' and I used the internet to find kasha _so I don't really know if it's right or not._

_Review please~  
_


	16. Dropping the F Bomb

_Oh gosh! I'm sorry it took so long to get this up! Between school, family, and general can't-write-at-the-moment, I just took forever! D:_

_Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed. And thanks to **chronoskitty** AND **Peter is Pan** for the song in this, since they both suggested the song. :D_

* * *

Ivan took a sip of tea (which may or may not have been spiked with vodka) and eyed the records in his hand, trying to decide which one he'd use next. He noted that one of them was a song about sunshine and sunshine reminded him of Alfred. Ivan decided not to use that one.

It'd been almost a week since Alfred and Matthew had moved in with Ivan, and the Russian was now to the point that he wasn't sure if he wanted Alfred there or gone. Sometimes, the American was absolutely adorable and so…'Alfred-ish' that Ivan felt all warm and fluffy on the inside. And other times, Alfred was such a freaking ignoramus that Ivan would have gladly pushed him out of a two-story high window. Luckily for the younger blond, the opportunity hadn't shown itself.

There was suddenly a loud knocking on the broadcasting room door and Alfred kicked it open, not waiting for Ivan to grant him entrance. The Russian gave him a slightly annoyed smile. Alfred gave him an overdramatic huff.

"Toris wanted to see ya, so I heroically offered to take your place while you go and talk to him," the younger stated, almost as if he was reading rehearsed lines.

Ivan raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Well he can wait. I'll be done soon anyway," he said.

Alfred sent him a strange half-pout, half-glare. "No! You gotta go _now_. Toris said it was _really_ important, so you have to go or else something bad might happen," he whined.

The Russian sighed and stood up. "Alright. Just don't do anything stupid. Also, I have some music picked out, so use it. Don't pick anything else," Ivan ordered. Alfred rolled his eyes, but quickly moved around the Russian and plopped down in the chair Ivan had been previously occupying. Ivan sighed again and headed out to Toris' office.

Ivan opened the door and was surprised at the scene. There was no panicking Toris, like he'd expect if there was a serious emergency. Instead, the Lithuanian, along with Eduard and Matthew, were all having a seemingly pleasant conversation. It certainly didn't look like an important issue.

The brunet gaped at his boss and hurriedly stood up. "G-good afternoon sir! Um, is something wrong?" Toris asked bashfully.

Ivan gave him a hard look. "_Is_ something wrong? Alfred just sent me in here saying that you wanted to see me about something important."

Toris blanched. "I-I never told Alfred t-to get you," he mumbled quietly.

Ivan frowned, trying to figure out why the hell Alfred would tell him Toris needed him when he didn't. A silence descended upon the room, the only sound coming from the radio Toris liked to keep in his office. Ivan's eyes widened when he heard Alfred talking into the microphone and that's when he realized it. Alfred was about to do something stupid.

"Alright! So this song is called 'I Can't Decide' by Scissor Sisters!" The American said brightly. Said song came on and Ivan cursed, wanting nothing more than to cause physical injury to the younger blond.

"Damn it Alfred!" He snarled, startlingly the three other males in the room. It was times like this that made Ivan wish he could get away with pushing Alfred out of a window.

***

Alfred pouted sourly while Matthew stared at him with a blank look. After narrowly escaping Ivan with his life, the American had taken up residence in his temporary room and refused to leave, even for dinner. Which was pretty impressive for Alfred, really, but that wasn't the point.

Matthew sighed and shook his head slowly. "…Why'd you do that Alfred?" He asked.

Alfred growled. "Hey! It's not my fault! How was I supposed to know that you can't drop f-bombs on the radio?" He defended.

The Canadian shot him a slight glare. "That wasn't my question and it doesn't matter. Ivan told you to just put what he had picked in the record player, but no. _You_ had to go pick your own song and now Ivan is in trouble," he said in an unusually cold voice. Alfred had a terrible feeling that his brother was about to go all 'passive-aggressive' on him.

There was no way he'd win this argument, but he had to try. "But I didn't know! And besides, Ivan has been playing such crappy music; I was totally doing him a favor," Alfred said quickly, hoping that it would fly with the Canadian.

However, his hopes were dashed when Matthew stared icily at him. "Yeah, getting him in trouble with FCC is seriously doing him a favor," Matthew replied sarcastically. Alfred flinched. He felt a little guilty. After all, Ivan was a complete prick, but he hadn't done anything wrong. It was Alfred who had done the wrongdoing and he felt like an asshole for letting Ivan take the blame. It was so _not_ heroic.

Matthew sighed and gave his older brother an exasperated look. "So…why did you pick _that _song, eh?" He asked.

Alfred flushed and stared at the ground. "Well, I like it. And it sorta reminds me of me and Ivan," he mumbled.

Matthew raised an eyebrow and his lips twitched into a slight smile. "Oh, it reminds you of you and him, eh? Even the part about effing and kissing?" He asked satirically.

Alfred paled slightly before his face turned crimson. Matthew chuckled but when his brother didn't even try to defend himself, the Canadian paused and gave the American a concerned look.

"What's wrong Alfred?" Matthew asked softly.

Alfred sighed and picked at the carpet, not looking at his brother. "It's…it's nothing, really," he informed. Matthew gave him a look that clearly read that he didn't believe him.

Alfred sighed and a blush painted his face. "Okay, I'll tell you. But you have to promise not to tell anyone and you can't mention it ever again!" Matthew nodded in agreement to the terms and Alfred took a deep breath. "Okay, so I may or may not have recently had a string of highly disturbing yet really actually kinda sexy dreams that involved Ivan and myself. And a lack of clothes," Alfred explained quickly.

Matthew stared at him with wide eyes before he slowly broke into a smile. "Seriously? You've had _wet dreams _about _Ivan?_ Does this mean you have crush on him?" The Canadian asked cheerfully.

The American shushed him and looked around the room wildly, as if there were cameras watching them. He frowned. "No! Well, I guess, maybe…I don't know!" Alfred whined.

Matthew smiled widely at him. Alfred gave him a hard look. "We never speak of this again. I'm getting my shower," the American said tiredly.

Matthew snickered. "Maybe you should invite Ivan, eh?"

Alfred shot him a glare. "That's it, I'm disowning you."

Matthew started to laugh and Alfred made his way to the bathroom, to clear his mind and ignore his brother with the best clichéd way to do so: take a shower.

After he entered the room, he quickly stripped down and turned on the water. He waited for it to get warm before stepping in. That's when he started to think about his conversation with Matthew. Did he really have a crush on Ivan? He didn't really think so, after all he _hated_ Ivan. Plus, he _was not_ gay. Or at least was pretty sure. He'd never considered it before.

The American gave an exasperated sigh. All of this self-questioning gave him a head ache. Not only that, it also was making him see things, like shadows outside of the shower curtain.

Alfred stopped on that thought. Shadows outside the curtain? He was pretty sure those weren't there when he first got in. The blond slowly ventured a peak and nearly had a heart attack. He was met with the sight of pissed-off Natalia holding a knife, about to strike like some type of horrific 'Psycho' killer theme.

Alfred let out an extremely unmanly shriek and bolted out of the bathroom in the nude, leaving Natalia, his clothing, and most of his dignity behind.

***

Arthur rolled his eyes at the patrons of his pub, but mainly at Gilbert, who now donned singe marks as well as some bruising from his tussle with Ivan, which had yet to fade. The albino slammed his pint of beer down on the counter and muttered slurred German curses.

The Brit shook his head and continued to fill up glasses full of alcohol.

"That damn asshole," Gilbert murmured. Arthur wondered idly who he was referring to this time, but he didn't bother to ask. Suddenly, the Brit felt a hand on his rump. Arthur quickly turned and waylaid the offender, who turned out to be just Francis. Arthur hoped it left a bruise.

Gilbert hiccupped and started to laugh loudly, gaining the annoyed Brit's attention. The albino gave him a wide grin. "I got it!" He yelled.

Arthur raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Francis, apparently over his latest injury, smiled at him. "What do you have, _mon ami_?"

Gilbert got an odd glint in his eyes. "You guys know 'bout that kid?" He slurred. When his audience shook their heads, Gilbert rolled his eyes. "What's-his-face? The _bruder_ of that kid we accidentally kidnapped? That guy!" The albino stated loudly.

Arthur snorted. "Yes, what about him Gilbert?"

Gilbert tapped his portable radio and smiled like he knew some awesome secret. "I don't know 'bout you guys, but I has heard some things on that asshole's station. I think that kid is livin' with him," the albino said. Arthur decided that Gilbert looked as though he expected Ivan to walk in any minute and beat the tar out of him just for saying something like that.

Francis chuckled. "Really? Ivan's gotten lucky? How about that…"

The albino snorted. "No! …Yes, but that's not the point. I had a great idea to get back at that asshole for…cheating, and then beating me up," he explained. Arthur rolled his eyes. He somehow doubted that Ivan had cheated during their little spat.

Gilbert went on. "Yeah! If he's screwing 'round with that kid, then we should find a way to break them up! That'll teach Ivan, the bastard," the albino said and laughed manically. Then he stopped. "Now I just have to figure out how I'm supposed to do that."

Arthur opened his mouth to make a negative comment on Gilbert's plan, like saying how stupid it was, but he was distracted by another stray hand on his behind. "Bloody hell, Francis! Stop touching my arse!"

* * *

_Yeah, so I don't know how often I will be able to update. :/_

_The song in this says the big bad F-word, and it's against the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to say it on public radio/televison, along with six other words, but those aren't mentioned in the song. :D_

_Review please~  
_


	17. I No Longer Dub Thee Ruski

_Okay, I'm so sorry that this took so long to get up. It WOULD have been up, like, yesterday but every time I started to write, my mom would kick me off so she could spend hours on facebook. Thanks to all of you who favorited, alerted, or reviewed. You guys are awesome. Right, so here's my fail!attempt at Ivan/Alfred-ness and a Russian accent._

_

* * *

  
_

Ivan was pissed. And pretty angry too, but mainly pissed as in drunk.

After trying to convince the FCC that there had been a mix-up with the records and getting a very firm warning to not let it happen again or else, the Russian decided that he could use a bit of vodka to calm his nerves. It was really too much of a close call. If he lost the station, he would lose his job and the house. Not good in the least.

Ivan took another swig of vodka and glared at his wall. It was all Alfred's fault. If Alfred wasn't such an inconsiderate brat, or if he had some _brains_, it probably wouldn't have happened. But that just wasn't the case. Now Ivan was on thin ice with the FCC and he couldn't do a thing about it.

The Russian was considering just evicting the American from his house when there was a hesitant knocking on his door. He growled in annoyance and opened the door, prepared to scare off whoever would be stupid enough bother him during one of his 'I'm-drinking-leave-me-alone' moments. However, he was not prepared to find that the stupid person was Alfred.

Ivan glared at him. "Vhat do you vant?" He hissed, his accent coming through. Being upset and a little drunk usually did that to him.

Alfred looked a little surprised at the state Ivan was in, but he quickly replaced his surprise for a sheepish smile. "Can…can I come in? To talk?"

The Russian gave him a blank look before moving aside. "Make eet quick," he said roughly.

Alfred hurried inside and he gave Ivan a guilty look. "Listen, I'm sorry 'bout early and you getting in trouble," he apologized regretfully.

Ivan snorted and gave the American a harsh glare. "It wouldn't have ever happened if you would listen for just once," he stated coldly.

Alfred frowned and got a guilty look on his face. "Yeah, I guess. But it wasn't like it was on purpose," he mumbled.

Ivan growled and brusquely shoved the younger blond against the wall and pinned him against it. Alfred looked flabbergasted, but that quickly turned into outrage and he flushed a bright red.

"Ivan!? What the hell!?" Alfred squawked in indignity.

Ivan shoved him roughly against the wall again and glowered at the American. "Vhy are you so _stupid?"_ The Russian snarled.

Alfred looked momentarily hurt but he quickly covered it with a glare. "Why are you such an asshole!?" He shot back.

They furiously stared each other down, a tense silence between them. After a few minutes of glaring at each other, Alfred looked away awkwardly, obviously not comfortable with Ivan's close proximity.

The younger blond cleared his throat. "Can ya lik', back up or somethin'. You're kinda too close ther'," he mumbled and his face turned crimson. Ivan noted that his accent was present and he vaguely remembered Matthew mentioning that Alfred got it when he was upset.

Ivan smirked and leaned closer to the American, laughing mentally with Alfred stiffened nervously. "_Esli ya nye hochu k?_" He asked teasingly. Ivan dimly noted that he was getting less pissed off at the American.

Alfred gave him an annoyed look. "Stop speakin' 'n Russian, ya damn _ruski_," he murmured. Ivan started to laugh and the American shot him a dirty look.

The Russian smiled and petted Alfred's head, noticing that the younger blond somehow managed to turn even redder and looked thoroughly embarrassed. Ivan would have to ask Matthew about it later.

Alfred sighed. "Why did ya laugh? You should be insulted," he mumbled, swatting away the Russian's hand.

Ivan smiled evilly and leaned closer to the obviously uncomfortable American. "I will tell you a secret. _Ruski_ means 'Russian male'. It's not an insult, not even close," he whispered into the younger's ear.

Alfred got a blank look on his face. "…Seriously?"

"_Da._"

"So, this whole time…"

"_Da._"

Alfred made a mortified face. "Well shit!"

Ivan chuckled and took a few steps back to give the American some breathing room. "Yes, 'well shit' indeed. I suggest that next time you find out just what you're saying before you go around trying to insult me," he said.

The younger blond pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Shut up, you asshole," he replied lamely.

Ivan smirked. He'd drop it…_for now._ "So, why were you screaming like a banshee earlier?" The Russian asked, changing the direction of the conversation.

Alfred blanched, and then got a terribly scandalized look on his face. "Dude! That was because of your damn sister! I was totally minding my own business, taking a shower and shit, and then I saw like this shadow from behind the shower curtain. So then I looked and there she was! With a freaking knife! I seriously thought I was going to die!" He ranted. Ivan stared at him before he started to laugh at the American's misfortune.

Alfred blushed and shot Ivan an offended look. "Don't laugh at me! It was terrifying! I'm seriously considering therapy," he informed. Ivan only laughed harder, obviously not feeling sympathetic for the younger blond.

Alfred glared at him, and waiting until the Russian stopped laughing. "I'm glad you find my mental scarring so freaking hilarious," he stated crossly.

Ivan gave him a bitter smile. "I do. But please take comfort in the fact that I have been in the same exact position. Except she didn't have a knife, luckily for me," he explained.

The American snorted and shook his head in pity for Ivan. They stood in silence for a moment and Alfred shuffled his feet.

"So…do you forgive me?" Alfred finally asked with a meek smile.

Ivan sighed but smiled slightly. "Yes, I suppose I will. After all, Natalia coming after you with a knife could be considered punishment enough."

Alfred snorted but returned Ivan's smile. "Shut up _ruski_."

***

Natalia was trying to come up with ways to torture Alfred. She decided that scaring the crap out of the blond simply wasn't enough, although it was quite amusing. Even if she did see some _things_ that she wished she could un-see when he ran off.

She suddenly heard a giggling and she frowned. She moved closer to the door of her new and hopefully temporary room and listened. She recognized Katyusha and Matthew chatting away cheerfully and she rolled her eyes.

That's when Natalia overheard a very interesting tidbit of information.

"Don't worry about it, eh. Alfred probably thought there was a ghost of something. He's scared to death by stuff like that. And horror movies. And the worst part about the horror movie thing is that he _forces _himself to watch them. Says that real heroes have to face their fears or something stupid like that," Matthew said.

Katyusha said something quietly that made the Canadian chuckle. Natalia decided that she no longer wished to eavesdrop on the conversation and she headed downstairs to talk to Toris. Perhaps he'd be able to find some really horrific horror movies. Natalia smiled wickedly. Even if she couldn't force Alfred out of her house right now, she could still make his stay miserable.

* * *

_Ivan says _'And if I don't want to?'_ And oh no, stuff is happening! One good thing from my mom kicking me off the computer was that I was able to figure out what the jist of what I'm going to write from now until the end. Go me! _

_Also, more about unrelated things I do in my spare time, I've been learning Russian. ...It's not very easy. Curse you Paul, American learning how to speak Russian and Anna Ivanovna Smirnova, Russian teacher from Belarus! And you too, Natalya Petrovna Ivanova, Russian banker! Don't think you've gotten away from my cursing just cause you're in the next chapter!_ ... :D


	18. Horror Movie

_Wow, it took me a while to get this up. I have no excuse, I'm sorry. I don't really like how this ended, but...meh. Thanks for all of you who reviewed~_

* * *

Matthew smiled at Katyusha, who was laughing at a joke he made. The Canadian felt incredibly accomplished. After Katyusha's laughing died down a bit, she gave Matthew a bright smile.

"Why are you so funny Matthew?" She asked teasingly.

Matthew grinned. "I watch television, eh," he replied. Of course it didn't make much sense, but it was apparently still humorous as the Ukrainian started to laugh again. Matthew was on a roll. Matthew decided to take a chance.

He swallowed nervously and slowly reached out and grabbed Katyusha's hand. She looked surprised, but she didn't pull away. They sat awkwardly for a few seconds, Matthew holding Katyusha's hand while she remanded unresponsive.

Matthew was about to let go, apologize and ask that they forget anything ever happened, when the Ukrainian shyly intertwined their fingers. They stared at each other in silence for a few moments, blushing furiously.

Matthew once again used all of his Canadian willpower to speak again. "Can, maybe, you-I mean we- maybe go on, you know, out somewhere sometime?" He asked quickly, and cursed himself at his very unsmooth asking-a-girl-out skills.

Katyusha blinked at him before she smiled widely. "Matthew Williams, are you asking me out on a _date_?"

The blond gapped at her then nodded quickly. Katyusha giggled.

"I'd love to."

Matthew swore that he almost had a heart attack from pure Canadian joy.

***

Natalia was never one for horror movies. She just couldn't get into them. Sure, she could laugh at the terrified people along with Ivan, and she could even admire some of the better killing scenes. But the truth was that she just didn't know anything about what would scare an average person.

Even though Toris had helped her pick out a supposedly scary movie, she still had her doubts. The cover and the title didn't even _look_ scary, and the best the Lithuanian could give her as an example of the movie's true horrifying nature was that it made Raivis cry.

Natalia wasn't impressed. But, it'd have to do. With Natalia's lack of scary movie knowledge, there wasn't much else she could do anyway.

She located her target, and narrowed her eyes when she saw her target being overly friendly with _her_ brother. Natalia had the resist the urge to just stab the cheerful American in the face right there. She walked over, keeping a neutral face on in front of her enemy. She shoved the movie in front Ivan's face.

"Brother," she stated, trying to think of how exactly to get the target to watch the movie. "I would like it very much if you watched this horror movie with me…I've heard that it takes someone with _much_ courage to watch it, as it is _that_ scary. I feel that I can't watch it alone. Out of _fear_," she explained. Ivan gave her a clearly distrusting look while Alfred looked curious, oblivious as always.

The American gave Natalia a nervous half-smile. "Um, I…I can watch it with you? After all, everyone knows that scary movies' scariness is cut in half when you're watching it with other people," Alfred informed, still looking at the movie as if it planned on attacking him right then and there.

Natalia fought to hide her victorious smirk and nodded. She completely had Alfred, hook, line, and sinker. If this movie was just scary enough, it would make the American on edge. Then she could stalk him throughout the night and terrorize him. It was part of her brilliant plan to make Alfred miserable and the blond was falling into it easily.

Ivan shot Alfred a quick, unreadable look, and returned his attention to Natalia. "Alright, sister. I suppose I can watch it with you and _moy malyen'kiy gyeroy_," the Russian said with a fond smile that Natalia instantly picked up on. To most people it would be hardly noticeable but to Natalia, who had many years of stalking Ivan under her belt, it was painfully obvious. Plus, the little pet name might have been another sign of fondness. It made Natalia wish she could shoot laser beams at Alfred's brain and explode it or something.

Alfred gave Ivan an annoyed look. "Stop calling me things in Russian!" The younger whined. Ivan chuckled and Natalia almost completely lost it. What in the hell did Ivan see in that-that whiney, ignorant, _idiot_!?

She ground her teeth, trying to keep her temper in check. "That's good. I'll meet you two in Ivan's room later so we can watch it," she hissed and stomped out of the room.

_God_, she hated Alfred.

***

Ivan knew something was up. First, Natalia just didn't _watch_ horror movies. Second, she'd certainly never be too _afraid_ to watch them alone. Had Alfred not asked to watch, Ivan would have never agreed. Not that he'd say that out loud, of course.

Ivan went into his room with a strangely quiet Alfred in tow. Since the radio station/house didn't actually have a living room, the TV was located in Ivan's room. Alfred plopped down on Ivan's futon, and the Russian was quite surprised when he didn't make a single quip about Ivan's sleeping arrangements. Not the first one!

The Russian sat down beside Alfred and gave him a questioning gaze. "Is there something bothering you, _gyeroy_?"

Alfred shook his head and Ivan thought it was a sign of the end of the world. Alfred not even commenting on Ivan's use of Russian? This was serious.

But before Ivan had a chance force an answer out of Alfred, Natalia stalked into the room. She shot a venomous glare at Alfred before putting the movie into the player. She turned off the lights and sat next to Ivan, putting him in-between his sister and his not-really object of affection.

The title came on the screen and then some blood behind. Ivan rolled his eyes. How gaudy. He glanced at his two companions. On one side, Natalia looked uninterested. That's what Ivan had expected. On the other side, however, Alfred looked he was already scared from just the title. That _wasn't_ what Ivan had expected.

The title cut off to a scene of two happy teenagers doing teenager things like sex and drugs. Suddenly, a machete-wielding man appeared out of virtually nowhere and loped the male teenager's head off. There was an explosion of terribly fake-looking blood and the female teenager started screaming.

Ivan chuckled. This movie was obviously from the 70's, and it was possibly one of the non-scariest things he'd seen, what with its fakeness and over-dramatic acting. The Russian was about to start verbally bashing the movie when he heard a distraught whimper from next to him and felt Alfred move up against him.

Ivan blushed slightly and glanced at the American. Alfred was staring intensely at the screen with wide eyes, looking every bit as terrified as the actors in the movie. Possibly more.

The music made a dramatic change on the movie, signaling that the killer was about to make an entrance and end the life of the blond actress who was running around in circles. Suddenly, true to the music, the killer appeared. The actress on screen screamed and Alfred did the same.

"Holy shit!" Alfred yelled, practically jumping into Ivan's lap. "Did you see that shit?! Oh my god!"

Ivan gave the American an incredulous look. He was seriously _afraid_ of _this_? Hell, Natalia was scarier than anything in this movie. Speaking of the Belorussian, Natalia looked ready to kill Alfred for invading her brother's personal space. She clung possessively to his arm while Alfred hugged the other one, still intently watching the movie.

Ivan sighed. This was going to be a long night.

***

Alfred silently screamed at the strange noises at his door. They sounded strangely similar to that of a knife scratching wood. The American shook his brother awake.

"Matthew!" Alfred cried out, close to hysterics.

The Canadian blinked at him groggily before groaning. Matthew knew that tone. It was the same tone that Alfred always used when he was freaked out by something. And judging by the older blonde's mumbling about 'psycho killers' and 'like in the movie', Matthew deduced that his brother had been an idiot again and watched a horror movie.

Matthew gave him an irked glare. "Alfred. I told you the _last_ time, I'm not dealing with this anymore, eh. Every time _you_ watch a scary movie, _I_ have to lose hours of sleep babying you. No more," the younger blond stated firmly.

Alfred shot him one of most pitiful kicked-puppy looks, but it obviously did little to sway the Canadian, who was used to such looks.

"_No_ Alfred," Matthew hissed and he turned his back on the upset American.

Alfred glared at Matthew's back, mentally cursing him for being such a douche bag of a brother, but that quickly ended when he heard more scratching. He whined and stood up from his bed slowly. He put a blanket over his head (as if that would protect him from a killer) and nervously crept into the hallway.

If Matthew wasn't going to help ease his fears, then he'd find someone else. Sadly, however, the only person who seemed capable of beating a machete-wielding psycho was Ivan, who may have been just psycho enough to chase off any _other_ crazy people. For some reason, Alfred could imagine the Russian threatening people with an old water pipe.

He shook the thought from his mind and wandered into Ivan's room. It was dark, but Alfred could make out the Russian's outline laying on the futon. He tiptoed up to Ivan silently and tapped his shoulder.

"_Ivan,"_ Alfred whispered critically.

The Russian made an annoyed grunt and Alfred took this as a sign that he'd woken up.

"Listen, is it cool with you if I sleep in here with you tonight 'cause Matt's being an asshole and won't let me sleep with him. Not that I _need_ to sleep with anyone, I just thought it'd be good if I was here to protect you and stuff," Alfred rambled.

Ivan shifted and shot him a confused and mildly pissed off look. "…What?"

Alfred sighed and blushed. He was so happy that it was dark, that way Ivan couldn't see how red his face was turning. "I asked if I can sleep with ya," he mumbled.

Ivan when very silent for a moment then took a deep breath. "Why?"

Alfred shuffled his feet, taking Ivan's bothered tone as a bad sign. "…'Cause I figured you mighta been a bit scared from that movie earl'er an' I just thought that I could maybe keep ya comp'ny. So you wouldn't be scared," the American explained with a cringe. Not even _he _believed himself.

Ivan snorted. "I'm certainly not afraid from that movie earlier," he said smugly. Alfred made a slight whine and the Russian paused, and then sighed in defeat.

"…But I suppose if you really think that protecting me is a good way to spend your night, be my guest," Ivan mumbled.

Alfred practically leapt for joy and quickly scurried on top of Ivan, who was less than pleased.

"What are you _doing_?" Ivan hissed.

Alfred gave an annoyed huff and made himself comfortable on the Russian. "Well, your futon's small as hell an' I ain't sleepin' on th' floor," the blond explained, fighting off the flush on his own face.

Ivan groaned and muttered what Alfred would have to assume as Russian curses. The American rolled his eyes and chose to ignore them in favor of blocking out the images left on his psyche.

After half an hour, Alfred started to feel on the verge of sleep. Ivan was surprisingly quite comfortable to sleep on. The American nuzzled against Ivan, assured that the Russian was already asleep. However, he realized he was sadly mistaken when Ivan chuckled softly and ran a hand through his hair.

"_Vi slishkom sladki inogda, moy malyen'kiy gyeroy,"_ Ivan mumbled.

Alfred blushed furiously, even if he didn't know what Ivan had said. The actions had been enough. He swore he heard an almost fond tint in the Russian's voice and it made the American feel…funny. But in a good way. Alfred bit his lip. This was quickly turning into an impossible situation, but Alfred surprised himself by realizing that he didn't really mind if he maybe had a little, teeny tiny thing for Ivan. He could still deny it, after all.

* * *

_Whoo, at least this is a fairly long chapter. If anyone wants to correct my Russian, please do so.  
_

_'moy malyen'kiy gyeroy' - Russian for 'my little hero'  
'Vi slishkom sladki inogda'- Russian for 'You're too sweet sometimes'._

_D'aww....Review please~  
_

* * *


	19. I'll be your Hero, Natalia?

_So sorry it took so long. There's been a problem at school and it's been interfering with my writing. Sadly, it's still unresolved at the moment. Also, I'm a little sad to say that one of you dear reviewers said that you wanted to see what would happen if Natalia caught Alfred and Ivan 'sleeping' together because I don't have that. :/ Let's just say that Ivan woke up, was all like 'aww', then kicked Alfred out of his room before anyone noticed. :D_

_

* * *

  
_

Natalia sent a disgusted look towards Alfred, who was complaining about the lack of ice cream and hamburgers to her dear, and extremely busy, brother. Both Toris and Matthew had caught the same bug and were in no condition to work. Normally it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but today was the day that some of the more challenging technical equipment decided to stop working. It summed up to Katyusha and Raivis trying to do all of Toris' jobs plus fixing machines which they had little knowledge off and Ivan about to lose his patience with Alfred, who was still going on about food.

Finally, much to the Belarusian's perverse pleasure, Ivan snapped at Alfred.

"If it's such a problem, go to the store! Away from here," the Russian shooed, obviously annoyed to anyone who wasn't Alfred F. Jones. Secretly, Natalia was disappointed that her brother didn't physically harm the American.

Alfred grinned idiotically. "Okay! That sounds like a good plan."

Ivan nodded distractedly, still a bit more focused on the betrayal of his record-playing equipment. "Good. Don't forget to get all of the necessities."

The American made a confused face. "Like what? Do I need a list or something?"

Natalia shook her head. She felt bad for her poor brother, having to deal with such a level of stupidity.

Ivan made an annoyed grunt. "Alfred, I _don't_ have the time, nor patience, to compile a shopping list for you at _this_ very moment in time. If you can't figure out what we need, then don't bother going."

Alfred made an annoyed whine and Natalia could sense that he was about to go on yet another rant about all of the fattening American foods that he wanted. She could also sense the put-out aura Ivan was giving off. It made her want to do something to help her dear brother.

"I'll go with him," she stated quietly. The two males stared at her in shock and she couldn't blame them. She wasn't really sure why she had offered to do that other than to please her dear brother.

Alfred gave Natalia a slight smile and he laughed awkwardly. "Oh, okay! That sounds like a good idea too!"

Natalia glared daggers at him. Only for her brother would she ever deal with _this_ idiot.

***

Natalia and Alfred walked down the road together. The store was relatively close by, so Ivan decided that they could just walk there and back. Besides, he didn't trust Alfred with a motorized vehicle, so walking it was.

Natalia gave Alfred a sideways glance and growled slightly. "I don't know what he sees in you," she murmured. The American tilted his head to the side and gave her a questioning look which she chose to completely ignore.

A silence fell over them and Alfred looked very much like he wanted to say something. But before he got the chance, a fancy black car that looked quite expensive came flying down the road.

The car screeched to a stop next to the two and before either knew what the hell was going on, a group of Asians wears sunglasses and suits yanked them into the car. The Asians, who were looking quite pissed off and scary, put cloths with a strange chemical smell over Natalia and Alfred's faces and everything went black for the two.

***

Alfred groaned and blinked slowly. He was having a bit of trouble remembering what had happened. He looked around, realizing that he was in some type of cell, which instantly made his mood drop to an impressive low. Then he realized that he wasn't alone. Natalia was sitting nearby, glaring at him. This made his mood even lower.

The American bit his lip nervously. "Natalia. W-what's going on?"

The Belarusian gave him an annoyed look, as if he should already know what's going on. "We we were kidnapped by the mafia. The Asian one, not the Italian one. I'd be ashamed if we had been so easily kidnapped by the Italian mafia," she stated, as if being kidnapped by any form of the mafia was a normal occurrence.

Alfred gapped at her in panic. "Why would they kidnap us?!"

Natalia snorted. "I believe they were really going for _me_. You were just there," she said. "And I think they were going after me because I tried to castrate the Don's son."

The blond stared at her in astonishment. "Why in the _hell_ would you do that!?"

Natalia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I payed him to run you out of town but he obviously failed and I brought it upon myself to punish him," she informed with mild disinterest.

Alfred stared at her with dread. …Just how crazy was Ivan's sister? Obviously really crazy. The American was amazingly even more concerned for his wellbeing than he was five minutes prior to Natalia's confession.

There was a rattling noise and the old metal door that kept the prisoners inside slowly swung open. An aloof young man entered. He sent Natalia a blank look and Alfred heard the girl hiss under her breath.

"_Li."_

Li looked at the unhappy Belarusian, then to Alfred, and then back to Natalia. Natalia narrowed her eyes dangerously. Li, sensing the violence in the air, quickly left the way he came and locked the door behind him.

Natalia sighed tiredly and Alfred stared at her in complete confusion. "What the hell was that?"

She gave him an annoyed look. "That was Li, the Don's son. He just informed me that, while it wasn't his intention or idea, we will be here for quite some time," she informed. Alfred wondered how she had gathered that amount of information what with Li's lack of vocalization, but he pushed that thought out of his mind. He had more important things to focus on at the moment, like escaping.

He sighed and tapped one of the bricks in the wall. When nothing happened, he simply went to the next brick and tapped it. The American continued this for several more bricks, but with the same result.

Natalia gave him a cagey look. "What are you doing?"

Alfred sighed dramatically. "Well! I'm looking for a secret passageway or something. You know, like in the movies? I'm sure there's one here somewhere," he said, going to the next brick.

Natalia rolled her eyes. "That's completely idiotic. As if there was any way that there's some sort of secret passage in here. Honestly, what does Ivan see in you?" She asked herself.

Alfred paused and shot her a questioning look. "Huh? What do you mean 'what does Ivan see in me'?" He asked. Strangely, he really wanted to know the answer.

Natalia sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "…I _don't know_ what he sees in you. I find you to be an obnoxious, stupid, pig-headed brat, but he still likes you."

Alfred chose to ignore the multiple insults to his personality in favor of the more important part of Natalia's dialog. "Ivan likes me?"

Natalia sighed crossly, as if she was speaking to a very slow child (which, in a way, she was). "_Yes._ Ivan likes you very much, in the romantic fashion. But I still will not give up on him."

Alfred hummed in thought while tapping a brick absentmindedly. "You know, they say if you love something, you should set it free. …And Ivan doesn't like me in a romantic fashion, I so don't believe you," he said quickly, his face turning a bit red.

Natalia huffed and was about to say something insulting when suddenly a secret door swung open from the wall. The two stared at it in shock for a moment before Alfred gave her an 'I-told-you-so' grin. Natalia gave him a threatening glare in return. They walked into the doorway and found themselves in a room that looked similar to a large warehouse.

Alfred and Natalia gave each other a look and walked around in an effort to locate the exit. However, any 'exit-finding' progress was lost when they turned a corner and a group of angry Asian men were all standing there.

Alfred silently cursed all that was holy for making such a ridiculous and movie-esque scenario happen to them at that very moment. One of the men yelled out something in some Asian language that Alfred couldn't place and they all pulled out weapons in typical 'minor gang character' style.

The American glanced at Natalia and got the strange urge to be his heroic self for her. Because that's what heroes do. They protect maidens from the bad guys, just like in all the movies. Even if the maiden happened to be bat-shit insane.

Alfred stood in front of the Belarusian and spread out his arms protectively. "Don't worry Natalia, I promise to protect you," he said to her in a serious voice. She widened her eyes, either surprised that Alfred would want to protect her or that he could be serious. Probably both.

One of the gang members yelled some sort of ancient battle cry and ran towards the American. Alfred smirked and dodged the punch the bad guy threw at him. The blond grabbed him by the color of his shirt and started to spin him around quickly.

The other minor gang members paused in their attack to watch the American spin one of their own like it was nothing, with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Alfred cackled and let go of the man. He was sent flying right into the group. Several of the bad guys were knocked down from being hit by a flying Asian. Others just stared at Alfred before they promptly fled, obviously not too keen to deal with someone who had super strength.

Alfred chuckled as they ran away, yelling things at him which he couldn't even understand. Suddenly, there was a click and a piece of cold metal was at the back of his head. Alfred gulped, now feeling extremely concerned for his life. The only thing he could think of was that Natalia had found a gun decided to kill him, once and for all.

There was a sudden scream from behind him and the gun was no longer jabbing him in the back of the head. He turned around quickly and was amazed by the sight. Natalia was standing next to one of the gang members, who was on the ground and holding his bleeding arm. She was holding a bloody knife and a gun was on the ground not too far away from the distraught and cussing Asian mafia member.

Alfred put two and two together and smiled widely at Natalia. "Natalia, you totally saved me!" He shouted in surprise. The Belarusian cringed, as if disgusted that she had 'saved' Alfred from an early demise, but the American chose not care.

He threw his arms around her and brought her into an uncomfortable and awkward hug (for her at least). "Thank you, thank you, thank you, _thank you!_" Alfred praised.

Natalia gave him an unreadable look and prompted shoved the American off her. "Don't mention it. _Ever_," she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Alfred simply smiled brightly and nodded. "Okay!"

Natalia gave him a long and probing gaze. He fidgeted and she finally sighed in defeat. "…I suppose that maybe you are…an 'okay' enough person. As long as brother is happy with you, I suppose I can give my blessing. You are allowed to _date_ him," she murmured. She made a face as if she had just swallowed a rotten lemon.

Alfred stared at her in shock, and then chuckled awkwardly. "…I didn't want to date Ivan. But thanks for letting me?" He tried.

Natalia snorted and walked away. She'd find the exit then leave Alfred behind. Hopefully, he would get lost and never be found again.

***

Ivan was relieved to see Alfred and his sister come back home together and relatively unharmed. He was not, however, pleased to see that neither had any shopping bags.

The Russian sent them an annoyed smile. "…You two forgot to go shopping."

* * *

_Argh, my fight scenes suck! I can't them good! ...And yes, did I mention that I actually _like_ Natalia? Cause I do. So she's just gonna be semi-cool with Ivan and Alfred's blooming relationship. Yay! :D_

_But really, I'm sorry if this chapter kinda sucked and/or confused you.  
_


	20. I Recognize Your Eyebrows

_Okay, I'm SO VERY SORRY that this took me five freaking days to write this! I don't really like how this chapter turned out, but (thankfully) I'm working on the next one and it should be better than this one!  
_

* * *

"I-yes. Yes, of course Francis. … No, I think it's a good idea, as long as Arthur is okay with it, eh. … Honestly Francis, I'm sure I won't have to resort to _that_. I'm sure Kat will be fine with it. Yeah, yeah, okay then. Good bye Francis." Matthew closed his phone and sighed. Francis could be a pain to deal with sometimes.

While the Canadian hadn't told his brother about his strange friendship with the Frenchman who had helped kidnap him several weeks ago, it wasn't exactly a secret. For some bizarre reason that Matthew couldn't fathom, he and Francis got along quite well, even though their personalities were almost at complete opposite ends of the scale.

But the Canadian was sometimes quite happy that they were such opposites, what with Matthew's inability to properly woo women and Francis' hobby of wooing…pretty much everybody.

Matthew sighed again, bracing himself for what he was about to do. He felt both stupidly happy and a powerful urge to vomit, but that was understandable. After all, he was going ask Katyusha out. Sure, he'd asked her before, but he had gotten sick and they couldn't go out. He felt that it was only proper of him to ask again.

After checking the radio station, the blond finally found who he was searching for. Katyusha was reading some book about farming and Matthew decided that, for some reason, it matched her well. He cleared his throat to announce his presence. Katyusha looked up from her book and gave him a bright smile.

"Ah, hello Matthew," she greeted softly.

Matthew gulped and gave the Ukrainian a nervous smile. "H-hi Kat. Um, listen, eh. Could we maybe, you know, try for that d-date again?" He asked, his voice gradually rising in pitch.

Katyusha blushed and smiled shyly at him. "Sure. Do you have any ideas?"

The Canadian sighed in relief and gave the girl a bright smile. "Actually, a friend of mine said that he could rent out a …restaurant for us," he said with a half-smile. Actually, he was kind of lying, seeing as how the Britannia Angel was more of a bar, not a restaurant, but he couldn't very well tell his date that they'd be going to a bar. That just seemed a bit cheap.

Katyusha got a strange look on her face and before Matthew could ask what was wrong, she spoke up. "Matthew, do you think we could invite my brother and Alfred?"

Matthew gave her a confused look. "Like a double date?" He asked without thinking.

The Ukrainian giggled and shook her head. "Actually, I hadn't considered it a double date, but now that you mention it, I believe that's an excellent idea. How about you go invite them and I'll get ready," she said and made a shooing motion with her hand.

Matthew nodded quickly and bolted out of the room in search of Ivan and Alfred. He tried to come up with a valid excuse to make both of them come along, but he was having a bit of trouble in that particular department.

After asking Toris were they were, Matthew finally found his brother and Ivan in the record library, unsurprisingly arguing.

"No way! This song totally matches you! It even has the word 'Russian' in it! And it says it a bunch!" Alfred proclaimed loudly.

Ivan sighed in aggravation. "Just because it says the word 'Russian' in it doesn't make it suddenly about me." Matthew could tell by the tone of Ivan's voice that this conversation had been going on for a while. The Canadian instantly felt a pang of pity for Ivan.

"Yes it does! Plus, it has some of that Russian gibberish in the beginning, so it matches you," Alfred defended.

Ivan made a strange and slightly scary face and then he chuckled. "Well, if '_Russian Lullaby'_ by E-type matches me then '_American Woman'_ by Lenny Kravitz matches you, _da?_" Ivan asked, sounding eerily innocent.

Alfred puffed out his cheeks and Matthew decided it was a good time to intervene. "Um, hi guys," he started lamely. Ivan and Alfred turned to Matthew and he suddenly felt a bit more self-conscious about basically suggesting that they should all go on a date together.

Matthew gulped. "Well, me and Kat are going on a date later and she really wants Ivan to be there and I really need Alfred's moral support so we thought it'd be fun if we all went together?" He squeaked out.

Ivan and Alfred glanced at each other then back at the Canadian. "Sure," they answered simultaneously. Matthew sighed in relief. Obviously, the thought that this could be interpreted as a double date never occurred to them.

***

Arthur gave Francis an annoyed glare. The Frenchman was happily chattering on about how cute it was that '_petite Mattieu_' had a girlfriend and that they were going out for a date. Arthur couldn't understand why Francis was so excited about _Matthew's _romantic life, and frankly he didn't want to understand what was going on in the Frenchman's mind.

But Arthur wasn't annoyed that Francis was so excited or even that Francis had announced out of the blue that the Britannia Angel had to be closed from the public for Matthew's 'special night'. No, what bothered Arthur was that Francis had forbidden him from using _his_ kitchen in _his_ pub. His food was delicious! Maybe not as good as Francis', but still…

The bell attached to the door jingled and the guests of honor entered with an annoyed Russian and American in tow. Arthur glanced at Francis and he judged that by the Frenchman's surprised face that he hadn't expected the two extras.

Francis quickly got over his initial surprise and smiled at the group welcomingly. "_Bonjour Mattieu_ _et Katyusha_, it's so nice to see you two! But, I'll admit, I didn't expect this to be a double date."

Arthur decided that the best word to describe the faces of Ivan and Matthew's brother would be 'horrified'. They swiftly and borderline violently protested while Francis continued to look amused. The Brit sighed, feeling bad for the two. He'd dealt with being the center of Francis' poor sense of humor before and he knew what it was like.

Arthur smacked the back of the Frenchman's head, which earned him a yelp. "Stop pestering our guests, you bloody tosser. Go cook or something," the Brit said, shooing him away.

Francis gave him a cheeky grin and went off to the kitchen. Arthur rolled his eyes and gave his guests an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Francis is just being a stupid git, like always," he said.

The Brit noticed that Matthew's brother (Alfred, was it?) was staring at him intently. It was kind of creepy, really, what with the younger blond just _staring_ at him with a strange intensity in his blue eyes. Arthur opened his mouth to say something that would hopefully cause the youth to stop _staring_ at him when the American interrupted him.

"Hey! I recognize your eyebrows!"

A silence fell upon the room. Everyone shot Alfred an amused, confused, or annoyed face (or a mixture of the three). Alfred apparently noticed this and decided to explain.

"Er, what I meant was that I recognize _you_ because of your eyebrows. From that one time," he explained lamely. Arthur was not impressed and his face clearly showed it. At least that bloody Frenchman hadn't heard about how distinguishable the Brit's eyebrows were. Good lord, imagine how many days of teasing _that_ would earn.

Arthur sighed in mild annoyance. "So, you mean to tell me that the only thing you remember about me from the last time we met is my eyebrows? …Although, I do suppose under the circumstances…"

Alfred snorted, as if that was just stupid. "No! That's just stupid! I meant from before we actually ever met. From that picture of you Ivan has on the wall. I saw that, then later I saw you and I couldn't figure out where I knew you from but then I realized that it was from that picture," the blond rambled.

Arthur suddenly became quite concerned that Ivan had a picture of him tacked up on his wall somewhere. The Brit gave the Russian a questioning look. Ivan returned it was a creepy smile and Arthur decided to never bring the matter up again. He'd just have to repress the memory.

Just then, Francis emerged from the kitchen with his trademark smile in place. "I, with my mastery of French cuisine, have prepared dinner for all six of us. I guess this makes it a triple date!"

Arthur, Alfred, and Ivan were not amused in the least. Ivan gave Francis a sinister smile and a slight laugh that frightened small children. Alfred looked horrified and made gagging motions with his hand. Arthur glared at the Frenchman and prayed that the night would get better from here on out.

***

Much to Arthur's misery, the night did _not_ get any better.

The Brit decided that everyone's behavior followed a certain pattern. First, Ivan would tease Alfred in some way, shape, or form. Alfred would get defensive and would spew curses directed at the Russian.

Francis would laugh and mention how much the two's fighting would remind him of Arthur and himself, and then the Frenchman would proceed to tease the Brit. But with _much_ more groping evolved than with Alfred and Ivan. Arthur would then physically injure Francis, who'd back off for a bit.

While all of this was happening, Matthew and Katyusha both looked rightfully embarrassed over their respective sibling.

It would stop for a few minutes, then Ivan would poke Alfred or something small and it'd start all over again.

But even with all of the negative emotion in the air, Arthur couldn't help but notice a slight similarity between his and Francis's relationship and Ivan and Alfred's relationship.

One would poke fun at and basically flirt with the other while the other would become flustered and defensive and they'd start fighting. The Brit idly wondered if Alfred had the same types of feelings as he did.

While he would rather die than admit it, Arthur had a certain fondness for Francis. And if Ivan and Alfred acted like him and Francis, than perhaps Alfred was fond of Ivan?

Arthur felt a hand sneak up his thigh and come to rest dangerous close to a certain sensitive area. The Brit blushed furiously and swiftly elbowed Francis's face. That was when he decided that he really actually hated the Frenchman and any previous thoughts never occurred. Especially the ones about him liking Francis a little. Those _definitely_ didn't happen.

* * *

_For some reason, this chapter was unbelievably hard to write. I don't know why..._

_Warning: me complaining about why this took me so long. Please feel free to completely ignore this.  
So! I've been in a bit of a creative and emotional slump, for starters. While normally I could still work with such small problems, some BIGGER problems are happening at school. There's this bitch in my 3rd period who I'd gladly stab in the face, I'm slowly becoming overloaded with work from my algebra and AP Euro hist classes, THEN there's this whole deal with me trying desperately to transfer into sculpture 1 from my AP art class because according to my teacher, none of my work is college level and he won't grade it so I have NO grades for that class so he suggested I go into his sculpture class, which I can catch up with before the grading period ends. BUT, there was a communication error between my folks and my teacher and it took me forever to get them on the same level and every time I try to go to my guidance lady to change my schedule _she's not there._ What is her purpose if she can't ever be at school? NONE of the guidance counselors seem to bother coming to school and I find it a bit of a piss off. *sigh*_

_So! That's the end of my rant. Sorry, I took so long for this chapter.  
_


	21. From Russia With Love

_Yay! I've gotten this up in good time! This is a fairly important chapter. And -gasp- there's only, like, three more chapters to go after this one. Thanks all of you you reviewed! You all made me really happy by actually giving a crap about my problems. My guidance lady says that it's been fixed, so only time will tell, I suppose. _

_Also, the song in this is called "From Russia With Love". It's from a James Bond movie, and it's pretty awesome. :D_

* * *

"_From Russia with love, I fly to you.  
Much wiser since my goodbye to you.  
I've traveled the world to learn  
I must return from Russia with love."_

Ivan looked up from his book, and made a face. Someone was singing. Well, he _guessed_ someone was singing. Really, it sounded more like a banshee dying a slow and painful death. The Russian listened for a moment before he decided that he needed to put a stop to whoever was singing before someone else did (like Natalia).

"_I've seen places, faces, and smiled for a moment,  
but oh, you haunted me so.  
Still my tongue-tied, young pride would not let my love for you show,  
in case you'd say "no"."_

He walked into the kitchen and was met by an interesting sight (and sound). Alfred was cheerfully cooking hamburgers while singing, completely unaware of his audience. Ivan decided that, while it was an almost cute sight, listening to the American sing terribly was not on the list of his favorite things to deal with.

"_To Russia I flew, but there and then,  
I suddenly knew you'd care again.  
My running around is through.  
I fly to you from Russia with love."_

Ivan did find the lyrics a bit…strange though. Even if Alfred made the song sound like a cheese grater screwing a chalk board, the lyrics themselves were quite romantic. The Russian decided that the American's failure of singing was just one of those things about Alfred that he liked for no apparent reason.

Ivan quietly walked up behind the younger blond and leaned close to his ear. "I believe you massacred that song you were just singing, _gyeroy_," he whispered softly.

Alfred let out a surprised shriek and jumped almost two feet into the air. Ivan laughed at the shell-shocked expression on the American's face which quickly turned into a scowl.

The younger waved his spatula threateningly at the Russian. "What the hell, Ivan!? People as big as you shouldn't sneak up on people! Do you know how close I was to chucking this grease on you!? Like, really close, that's how," Alfred complained, smacking the Russian's chest with the spatula quickly several times. Ivan frowned, realizing that now he'd have to worry about grease stains on his clothing.

Alfred stopped his assault on Ivan's clothes and gave the Russian a moody look. "So, why'd you say that I was 'massacring' that song? I thought I was doing a good job," he murmured, looking slightly offended that someone thought that he was bad at singing.

Ivan smiled and patted the American on the head. "I say it because it's true. You're utterly awful. So what was that song you were murdering called?" he asked cheerfully, as if he didn't just insult Alfred.

Alfred growled slightly and smacked Ivan's hand away. "God, you're such an asshole. If you must know, that would be…" the American paused, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable. Ivan smiled widely at him, sensing Alfred's discomfort. Oh, it was so fun to pick on Alfred.

The American glared at Ivan and sighed dramatically, obviously coming up with something to say. "That song was from James Bond, only one of the most epic heroes ever," Alfred said with an air of impatience, as if the Russian should already know that James Bond was epic and so was any music associated with him.

Ivan raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You…like James Bond?"

Alfred snorted and rolled his eyes as if he had just been asked an incredibly stupid question. "Duh! He's only, like, one of the greatest men ever alive! ...Okay, so technically he was never _alive_ but he's still awesome. Like Chuck Norris or Theodore Roosevelt. Purely awesome," he explained.

Ivan shook his head at the blond and smiled slightly. Honestly, what kind of person listed James Bond, Chuck Norris, and Theodore Roosevelt as their heroes? Probably just Americans. "Okay, okay. I suppose can understand that. But why would you want to sing such a corny song? And about Russia too…"

Alfred pouted childishly at the Russian who simply smiled innocently. "What!? What's so wrong about that song? Sure, it's a little bit too lovey-dovey and it says Russia a couple times, but that doesn't suddenly make it about you and me!" The American said with irritation.

Ivan raised an eyebrow at Alfred, who suddenly flushed brightly, obviously realizing the implications of his little outburst. Alfred put his hands up in front of him in a surrendering gesture. "Wait, I take that back. I messed that sentence up," the younger proclaimed, trying to take back his words.

Ivan only smirked and strode forward, pulling the American into a tight embrace. He had absolutely no idea why he did it. Maybe it had something to do with how cute Alfred looked at that particular moment. Or maybe it something else. …Either way, Ivan decided that he quite enjoyed holding the younger blond.

Alfred froze like a deer caught in the headlights. His face turned dark red and he let out a sight gasp. "Wha-what the hell, Ivan!?" He squawked, pulling away like he had been burnt.

Ivan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I just felt like it. …_Vozlyooblyenniy_," the Russian tried. For some reason, the word just felt funny coming out of his mouth. Maybe he'd just stick to gyeroy.

Alfred's expression became unreadable and he sighed. "Jeez, I really need to get out of here," he mumbled and walked past Ivan. The Russian stared after him, wondering why he had even hugged Alfred in the first place and why said blond had gotten so upset. It must have been just another one of those little things about Alfred that he couldn't explain.

***

Gilbert paced back and forth in thought. He was having trouble thinking of how to spilt Alfred and Ivan up. Francis, the master of all things to do with love, refused to help him for some reason and now the albino had absolutely no idea how to utterly destroy Ivan's happy little relationship. After all, Gilbert was a fighter, not a lover. He didn't know what those mushy saps thought about all day.

The albino gave an aggravated sigh and heard someone clear their throat from behind him. He turned around and was met by the sight of some Asian guy he'd never seen before. The Asian guy, who looked like he was of Chinese origin, gave Gilbert a weak smile.

"Hello –aru. My name is Wang Yao. I've heard that you have a bit of a problem, involving a certain Russian and American's relationship –aru. Is that true?" Yao asked. Gilbert raised an eyebrow skeptically. This Yao guy just practically came out of nowhere and somehow knew of his plans. The albino really didn't trust him, but why the hell not? It's not like he had anything better to do.

Gilbert smirked. "Yeah, that's true. What can you do about it?"

Yao gave him a slight smile. "Well, I know some things about Alfred –aru. I know that he had a girlfriend not too long ago that broke up with him. And I also know that he's in a very…unstable state of mind at the moment. He's confused about his feelings –aru. That makes him easily susceptible. If you can convince his ex to take him back, he'd go back –aru," he explained.

Gilbert noticed that Yao seemed almost guilty to tell him about how to ruin Ivan's budding romance, but he didn't really care at the moment. "That's awesome! Okay, so who's this girlfriend and how do I get in touch? I'm sure no lady can resist a request from the awesome me," the albino proclaimed boldly.

Yao sighed unhappily. "Alright –aru. I'll tell you…"

* * *

_My dad says that every man wants to be like James Bond so I mentioned that. Also, while my heroes don't consist of James Bond, I do love Chuck Norris and Teddy Roosevelt (along with Andrew Jackson)._

_Oh, and 'Vozlyooblyenniy' is an old fasion word for 'beloved'. Thank you Impervious Marr for correcting me! :D Har har, so anyway review please~  
_


	22. Maria

_Woo, it took me a week to write this, whoooo. Yeah, so I'm sorry about that. I couldn't figure out a good way to write the first half (Ivan's general POV) without it sounding completely stupid...I STILL don't like how it turned out. D: _

_But the second half is better, and I suppose that sorta makes up for it (butnotreally). Anyway, thanks to all of you guys you reviewed and favorited and alerted and stuff! You guys rock! :D  
_

* * *

Ivan ran a hand through his hair and smiled at the semi-normality of the day. Katyusha had volunteered to be the disk-jockey a couple hours earlier than her usual time since Matthew was still at his classes. Toris and Raivis both seemed to be flustered by work and were scurrying back and forth between rooms while Edmund was busy giving occasional orders to them and drinking tea. Alfred was cheerfully avoiding Natalia who was stalking him and threatening him by waving her knife around.

All in all, it was a typical day for the inhabitants of the RUSH 145.0 radio station. It made Ivan happy to have a house full of life and movement and _warmth._

Alfred nonchalantly chucked an empty soda can at an angry Natalia, who apparently decided to castrate the American right then and there. She let out a furious shriek and chased Alfred upstairs with him laughing all the way.

Suddenly, there was a hesitant knocking on the front door. Ivan chuckled and opened the door. He was met by the sight of a woman he was certain he'd never seen before. She had really long and wavy black hair, dark brown eyes, and tanned skin.

She looked at Ivan with surprise and dusted imaginary dust off her dress. "Um, hello there. My name is Maria. Is, um, is Alfred here?" She asked with a frown, obviously uncomfortable and a tad bit reluctant.

Ivan raised an eyebrow at her and frowned. _Maria…_For some reason, that name sounded mildly familiar. What did she want with Alfred anyway? And more importantly, how did she even know that Alfred was here? The Russian decided that he'd probably find all of that out soon, so there was no point in asking.

He moved out of the doorway. "Alfred, there's someone at the door for you," he called back into the building.

There was a crash and Ivan instinctively knew that something had been broken and would require him to clean it up. He heard his younger sister yell cures and he rolled his eyes as the American all but bolted down the stairs with a victorious smirk on his face.

"Yeah, what is-?" Alfred started but he froze when he caught sight of his guest. The two stared at each other and Ivan suddenly felt as if he was intruding on something.

Maria smiled meekly. "Hello Alfred."

Alfred blinked at her slowly. "…Hello, Maria."

The two stared at each other awkwardly again and Ivan frowned. Wait a second…He remembered where he'd heard of Maria before. Wasn't she Alfred's ex? The Russian's eyes widened and he suddenly felt very defensive and slightly concerned why she'd show up.

Alfred shuffled his feet. "So…what're ya doin' here?" Ivan instantly detected Alfred's nervous southern dialect and he shot a sadly unnoticed glare at the woman.

Maria looked uncomfortable. "Well, I've been thinking…" she started and Ivan blanched. 'I've been thinking' usually means that something important that's either good or bad is about to be said. "I've heard from some…friends of mine that you've, well, changed. They said that you've been through some hard times since we, you know, broke up and that you've grown up some."

Alfred had an unreadable expression on his face, and Ivan honestly was about two seconds away from shoving Maria out of the door and locking it. He didn't like the way the conversation was heading. Perhaps if he locked her out, she'd leave and they could pretend it never happened.

Before the Russian could go through with his brilliant plan, Maria spoke up again. "One of the things I've heard is that your home was burned down. It must be so awful, forced to live in an old, rundown radio station like this," she said with a sympathetic tone, but Ivan was positive that she shot him a snide look. Plus, she insulted _his_ home and that pissed him off quite a bit.

Alfred, for his part, looked mildly offended too. "Well, it's not _that_ bad-"

"No, no! It's awful here and I know I'd feel absolutely terrible if I just left you here like this," Maria said quickly, interrupting Alfred. Then she pouted cutely and gazed at Alfred with big and slightly teary eyes. "Please Alfred? I want to make things right between us," she said softly.

Ivan cringed. He knew that act. Katyusha used it all the time to get something she wanted (she could be surprisingly manipulative at times). Not only that, what business did she have, trying to get back with Alfred? Alfred was _his_.

Well, technically he was not really _his_. And Maria did kind of know him from before and had dated him and all of that. But that didn't matter to Ivan in the least. He needed to put an end to this.

Ivan gave the woman an even glare. "You had your chance and you threw it away. Maybe you should just leave," he stated coldly. Something flickered across Maria's face that was gone before the Russian could put a proper name to it. He didn't like it.

Maria smiled sweetly. "Yes, you're right about that. I did mess up," she gave Alfred a pleading look, "But I want to fix everything Alfred."

Much to Ivan's consternation, Alfred actually looked like he was considering it. He shot a heated glare towards the woman and noted that she was giving him a smirk. Oh yeah, she needed to go before Ivan decked her or something else really drastic.

Alfred shuffled his feet again, looking torn. "Well, that's good 'n all, but I kinda…Well ya see there's, um, someone…Um, Mattie. Yeah, I can't jus' leave Mattie here 'cause he don't really lik' ya so he wouldn' go over to yer house," he said, tripping over his words.

Maria gave a strained smile, obviously annoyed with Matthew but still wanted to keep a good impression. "Oh, well that's a shame. But I didn't invite him Alfred, I invited _you_. Besides, he has a girlfriend here, so I hear."

Ivan furrowed his eyebrows. "How did you know about that?" Seriously, she comes out of the blue and knows something like that?

Maria gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Oh, well word gets around and my friends told me about it." She returned her attention to Alfred. "So what do you say Alfred? You can come over and we can work things out or you can just stay here with _these_ people. Then you'd be stuck in a cramped little building with them and never get anything worthwhile accomplished," she said nonchalantly.

Alfred bit his lip, looking more torn than before. Ivan decided to make an effort in stepping in. "Alfred," he said, and then stopped. Actually, he couldn't really think of a good reason for the American to stay, other than the fact that he wanted him to. And if he used that reason, then it might lead to Alfred getting suspicious of his true intentions then the American really would hate him.

When Ivan didn't continue, Maria smiled brightly, assured by her victory. That's when she struck her final blow. "And besides, what do you really have here? A brother, sure, but he has his little girlfriend. Other than that, you just have friends, if anything, here. Right?"

Alfred's expression was a mix of emotions and he bit his lip again. There was a tense silence as he thought. Then, "…Yea. Yea sure. Well, I guess…maybe it'd be best if I did go with ya?"

Ivan gapped at him, feeling dread shot through his body. This could _not_ be happening.

Maria smirked. "Good, go get your stuff and we'll be on our way. I knew you'd make the right choice."

***

It'd been almost a week since Alfred left to go live with Maria, and Natalia was caught in a strange position. On one hand, she was absolutely delighted that the American was gone. On the other, she actually _wanted_ him back. And she wanted to kill him too, but that wasn't surprising.

Her dear brother had been an absolute mess since that American pig up and left. He looked awful, with dark circles under his eyes and a generally disheveled appearance. He acted like a zombie and barely showed any feelings other than being sad. He even went as far as to avoid Matthew due to his relation with Alfred.

She even tried to get some emotion other than sad from her brother by sneaking into the bathroom while he was taking a shower. Usually, it would be a surefire way to cause her dear brother to express surprise or embarrassment (or, if you were anyone other than Natalia, pure horror). Strangely and much to Natalia's disappointment, it didn't work. Ivan didn't even looked surprised, damn it!

It was pathetic and Natalia didn't like it one bit. Her handsome, loving, and perfect brother was spiraling downward all because of some stupid obnoxious boy.

She walked into the kitchen and noticed Ivan was sitting at the table, staring at a hamburger dejectedly. She raised an eyebrow. "Brother, are you planning on eating that?"

Ivan sighed. "No."

"Why?"

"It reminds me of Alfred."

Natalia resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes. "Then why did you make it?"

"Because it reminds me of Alfred."

Natalia slammed her hands down on the table. "Damn it, Ivan! You need to stop this! You've become absolutely pathetic!" She yelled, giving him a furious look.

Ivan looked surprised, which was unsurprising. Natalia seldom directed any rage towards him, so he must be in a sad state if she did.

Ivan, recovering from his initial shock, sighed and poked the hamburger. "But what am I supposed to do? … I miss him…"

Natalia fought down the anger and jealousy that statement caused and ventured to give her brother a hug. "I understand that. But you cannot continue to beat yourself up over him. If you want him back so badly, then don't just sit around like this. Do something." She also fought down the urge to throw up in her mouth a little.

The Russian raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

Natalia hummed in thought. "Well, you have to figure out that on your own. You know what he's like and what he enjoys. Perhaps you should use that in some way," she said. Seriously, she was about to vomit from giving her dear brother advice on how to fix his love life that didn't include her. But, she loved him with the power of ten million blazing suns, so she would just endure to make Ivan happy.

Ivan stared at the hamburger in thought. Then a look of realization crossed his face and he smiled brightly, which caused butterflies in Natalia's stomach. "I think I might have something."

* * *

_*gasp* Ivan is planning something! _

_Anyway, I love writing Natalia. She's seriously my favorite girl APH character. :D I realized that while I seem to do doing an okay job on her, I've made poor Katyusha seem kinda like a wimpy girl. Which she's not, but she still turned out that way. :/  
Another thing while I'm on about girls. I wasn't originally planning on Maria being such a bitch, but then I realized that I made poor Gilbo into such a bad guy and I felt bad for it. So I made an antagonist which people can actually dislike without feeling bad. :D_

_Right, so there is only, like, two more chapters after this (joy!) and they should be up before the end of this week (hopefully).  
Review please~_


	23. Russian Radio

_Yeah, so I updated the two last chapters together, cause I found it kind of lame to read the 'last chapter' and the epiloge with an unknown amount of time inbetween. So there._

_Thanks to all of you how have reviewed and all of that. You guys seriously made me full of so much happiness I could vomit kittens and rainbows! Hopefully, I'll get started on some of these evil plot bunnies I've had going on in my head since the middle of this fic. :D  
And seriously, if any of you out there want to, I'd be more than happy to co-author something (the only thing I've ever co-authored before was a picture me and my two friends did together. Coolest. Thing. Ever. I love co-authoring). _

_So yeah, here's the mushy ending chapter. The ending is kinda melodramatic and there's not much kissy-kissy, but that's cause I plan on keeping this rated T. And I can't write smut-ish like stuff. D:  
_

_

* * *

  
_

Ivan smiled a bit and nodded to Natalia. Her lips twitched and she returned the nod. She walked out of the station with dangerous and pointy looking knife hidden inconspicuously between her leg and her garter. Ivan turned to Toris who handed him a record with a nervous smile on his face.

Katyusha walked down the stairs and Ivan turned his attention to her. "Did Matthew get ahold of Alfred yet?" The Russian asked. Katyusha frowned slightly, and shook her head. Ivan frowned. "Well tell him to keep trying. It would certainly put a dent in the plan if he doesn't even turn on a radio," he said, mumbling the last part mostly to himself.

She nodded and headed back up the stairs. Ivan bit his lip. This _had_ to work. Because if it didn't, he couldn't think of anything else that would. Not only that, he probably would never be able to bring himself to do something as ridiculous and sappy as this ever again.

***

Alfred nodded as Maria chatted steadily about girl-related topics, but he really wasn't listening. The American's mind was somewhere else completely. He was trying understand why this all seemed so…_weird._ Like something was missing.

At first he considered that he just missed Matthew. He _had_ been living with his brother for a long time. But Matthew called several times a day to check up on him, so that probably wasn't it. Then he considered that it was Katyusha, but she would talk to him whenever Matt called, so she probably wasn't the reason either. After going through each member of the radio station, he finally came to a conclusion.

It was Ivan. Sure, he missed everyone else too (even _Natalia_, for God's sake), but he realized that it was Ivan that he missed the most. It was really depressing and Alfred wasn't quite sure what to do.

Sure, he could just up and leave Maria, no problem. She'd done it to him, after all. The only problem was that he just couldn't imagine just waltzing back out of the blue and for Ivan to just welcome him with open arms.

Not without proper explanation or a really good excuse, at least. And Alfred worried that if he was asked to explain, then he might say a little _too much_. Then Ivan would get all weirded out and never ever let him come back, thus leaving him without anywhere to go and ruining any chances he might have with Ivan.

…Not that Alfred _wanted_ to date him or anything. …Not really.

Alfred sighed, and then dully noticed that Maria was still talking about some dress she saw at the mall earlier. The American sighed again and prayed for some way to escape from the woman's incessant chatter. Just then, much to his surprise and joy, his cell phone rang.

Maria paused and gave the phone a dirty look while Alfred attempted to smile apologetically. He flipped the phone open and held it to his ear. "Alfred speaking."

There was a sigh of relief on the other end and a slight chuckle. "Hey Alfred. It's me, Matt. Listen, find a radio and turn it to RUSH 145.9 right now."

Alfred raised an eyebrow even though his brother couldn't see him. "Why?"

An annoyed grunt. "Don't ask why! Just do it right now. _Right now."_

Alfred held his hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine. I'm going."

Ignoring Maria's suspicious look, the American moved into the next room and turned on Maria's portable radio. After setting it to the requested station, Alfred sat down next to it.

"Okay, it's on the station. What now?" Alfred asked.

Matthew mumbled something and Alfred heard some movement. After a few seconds, Matthew cleared his throat. "Just keep it on and listen very carefully. Alright? I have to go now, so I'll talk to you later. And keep the radio on," the Canadian demanded forcefully and hung up. Alfred gave his phone a confused look. Matthew sure was in a hurry to hang up…

He decided to ask his brother about his weird behavior later. He figured that he should listen to the radio like Matthew asked him to, or else be victim to the Canadian's passive-aggressive anger.

There was a commercial on about a car dealership with super awesome deals and Alfred snorted. How very unimportant.

Then, the commercial went off (earlier than it should, Alfred noted) and Ivan's voice filled the room.

"Hello out there. I hope all of you listeners are enjoying yourselves today. Now, I usually don't do this, but it was…requested. By a listener at home," the Russian said, sounding a bit resigned. Alfred wondered what the hell was going on.

"This message is from a man who requested that he be called 'Rusky'. He requested a song to his 'malyen'kiy gyeroy', his little hero and he wishes to let 'gyeroy' know that this song is especially meaningful," Ivan chuckled here and Alfred flushed brightly. No way. Did this mean that 'gyeroy' meant 'hero'? That's what Ivan had been calling him all along? Not only that, he also picked out a song to him, which made the American feel all warm and fuzzy and generally embarrassed inside. He wondered what the song was.

_"Side by side we face each other,  
Standing here alone together.  
Your code I'll break, you made your last mistake.  
Called out cold war, remnants now on the floor."_

Alfred's eyes widened. He recognized this song! It was a great song by Anberlin. 'Cold War Transmissions'. Now that he thought about it, it really reminded him a lot of his and Ivan's relationship for some reason.

Maria walked into the room with a deep frown etched on her face. "What are you doing?" She asked, obviously more than a little annoyed. Alfred shushed her and pointed to the radio. She gave him a furious glare.

_"This is Russian radio here,  
calling you to come back home.  
This is Russian radio here.  
Run while you still can."_

Alfred blushed slightly, listening to the lyrics. If Ivan had wanted him to hear this song, then maybe…Maybe he was calling him back? Was that it?

Maria crossed her arms over her chest. "Alfred F. Jones, I _know_ you did _not_ just shush me!"

Alfred gave her an annoyed look and shushed her again while pointing to the radio.

_"Different sides we take our stance,  
this could be our last goodbye forever.  
Your spies come clean, they told me everything.  
Your moves I make, penance the fire drake."_

A disgusted look crossed over Maria's face. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?" She mumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like '_I knew I shouldn't have believed that damn albino'_, but Alfred chose to ignore it in favor of the radio.

Maria noticed this and gave him a cold, but slightly probing look. "…Or maybe you have changed. Just for the worst."

Alfred glanced at her and she turned away with an angry huff. "If you're worst than before, I want you out," Maria said with a sharp tone.

_"This is Russian radio here,  
calling you to come back home.  
This is Russian radio here.  
Run while you still can."_

Alfred didn't need to be told twice. He spared Maria a last glance and bolted from the room and out the house. He mildly wished he could take the radio with him, but it wasn't really his to begin with. He flagged down a taxi and jumped in.

The strangely annoyed and slightly scary taxi driver stared at him warily. The name 'Vash' was sewed onto his jacket. "Where to?" He asked, sounding bored.

"To RUSH 145.9's radio station, and step on it!"

The taxi driver snorted and gave Alfred a skeptical look, obviously not planning to go any faster than he usually did. The American realized this and bit his lip.

"How about if you get there in half your usual time, I pay you three times the due when we get there?" Alfred tried.

Vash got a strange look in his eyes and floored it suddenly. Alfred yelped in surprise, but he was still pleased he could get through to the driver.

_"And if this is our last goodbye,  
let me kiss your lips of red tonight,  
And walk the other way.  
Run away, run away,  
This is our last, this is our last goodbye."_

Alfred slammed his head into the back of the taxi's front passenger seat and whined loudly. Traffic! Why god, why!? At such an important time there just _has_ to be traffic. Vash made an angry face and Alfred isn't sure if it's because the driver is annoyed at his behavior or if he just hates traffic too. It doesn't really matter.

Alfred fidgeted in his seat anxiously. This was bad. He _needed_ to see Ivan ASAP, and he wasn't just going to be a pansy and wait for the traffic to clear. No! He was an _American_, damn it! He would do the all-American thing and get the hell out of there.

He opened the door and Vash shot him a furious look. "The hell do you think you're doing?" He demanded angrily and reached for something weapon-like in his jacket, obviously thinking the American was trying to get a free ride. Alfred, not in the mood to explain or count out his money, doled out all of the cash in his wallet and gave the driver a quick 'thanks'.

He started to run down the road, trying to figure out where exactly he had to go as to not get lost like a total dipstick.

_"This is Russian radio here,  
Calling you to come back home.  
This is Russian radio here.  
Run while you still, you still can.  
Run while you still, you still can."_

Alfred groaned and swore his legs were about to turn to jelly. After getting a little lost for a bit, then coming across the Britannia Angel, and then running to the station from there, Alfred was positive he was about to die from over exhaustion.

Maybe he really did need to stop eating so much junk food…Nah.

He reached the front door and knocked (read: beat the crap out of it). After a minute or so, the door slowly swung open and Alfred felt himself flush deeply.

Ivan stared down at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Alfred shuffled his feet awkwardly, not exactly sure what to say. What does one say in a situation such as this?

Alfred wetted his lips nervously. "I'm home."

Ivan suddenly pulled the American into a tight hug and the younger let out a surprised yelp. The Russian just chuckled at the reaction and he nuzzled into Alfred's hair. "I'm glad you came back to me."

Alfred blushed again and tried to give an unimpressed snort. "Whatever. I'm here 'cause Mar'a kicked me out 'gain. Not 'cause I lik' ya or anythin'," he mumbled.

A form of recognition flickered in Ivan's eyes and he smirked at Alfred. "Am I making you nervous, Alfred?" He gave a quick kiss to the American's forehead. Alfred stiffened and gave Ivan a 'deep-in-the-headlights' look.

The look caused Ivan to laugh again. "I'll take that as a yes," he murmured, his lips ghosting over the younger blonde's.

Alfred shuttered and gave Ivan an aggravated glare. He pressed his lips against Ivan's and pulled away quickly, his face redder than any shade of red. "If yer gonna keep playin' 'round, then I'll do it m'self," he explained.

Ivan smiled softly. "Of course _gyeroy_," he whispered and gave Alfred a quick kiss.

_This is Russian radio here, calling you to come back home..._


	24. Epilog

_A few months later…_

Alfred turned off the microphone and started the record player. He checked the headphones to make sure the sound was coming out correctly. When he found it was, he put the headphones down and smiled proudly.

Ivan snorted, unimpressed, next to him. "I'm glad you can at least do the simple parts of this job without needing help," he said.

Alfred smacked the Russian's arm with an annoyed grunt. "Shut up. If I suck so much at this, then why did you even give me the job?" He asked, a cocky smile forming on his face.

Ivan returned the smile with an innocent smile of his own. "Only because I love you."

The American flushed and smacked the Russian again. "Liar! I'm a DJ because I'm awesome at it, not because I get your special treatment or whatever," the blond replied heatedly, "And stop saying that every time I ask you something! It's annoying…"

Ivan chuckled and placed a chaste kiss to Alfred's lips. "Aw, but it's true, _moy gyeroy_. I love you," he said softly and Alfred's cheeks burned.

"Whatever. And stop distracting me from my job," the American chided.

Ivan smirked. "Why? It's not like I'm going to fire you or anything. That's a special privilege gained from sleeping with the boss."

Alfred blushed deeply and sputtered. "I-you, that w-wasn't!" He elbowed the Russian's ribs sharply. "Shut up! That was totally uncalled for, you asshole!"

Ivan smiled innocently, but with undertones of pure evil. "If you say so…but it's true."

The American growled and smacked the now laughing Russian in the back of his head.

***

Matthew held Katyusha's hand nervously and gave her a timid smile. She giggled and gave the broadcasting room a glance. "It sounds like they're having fun, doesn't it?" She asked.

Matthew chuckled. "Yeah, it does. …I wonder if they realize they argue so loudly that everyone downstairs can hear them," he mused.

Katyusha laughed. "Probably not. I wonder when they will."

"Unless someone says something, I bet they'll never find out."

The Ukrainian smiled fondly. "I bet you're right." She leaned over a bit and gave the Canadian's cheek a quick kiss. Matthew blushed, but smiled all the same. He could get used to this.

She pulled away and turned her attention back to the broadcasting room. "Do you think we should tell them?"

Matthew grinned slyly. "Nah, that'd be being too nice."

***

Natalia stalked down the street, anger obviously present with each step. She had to leave the station for a fresh air. And mainly so she didn't have to listen to Alfred and her brother flirt.

She had learned how to handle being in the same room with Alfred without attacking him, she had gotten used to the fond glances they gave each other when they thought no one was looking, and she had even managed to keep her stalking tendencies to a minimum. But when they started to make references to having sex with each other, that's when Natalia _had_ to leave.

She came to a bench and she sat down with a huff. Natalia sighed and massaged her temples tiredly. All she needed was to take a break for a while.

Natalia sat there with her eyes closed, relaxing. Then she felt a familiar presence stop in front of her. She slowly opened her eyes and spotted Li watching her with an unreadable expression on his face.

She growled and sat up, placing a hand over her hidden knife. "What the hell do you want?" She hissed. Ever since that whole 'kidnapping' incident, he avoided her at school and they didn't bother talking anymore.

Li shuffled his feet. _'Just saw you and decided to see what you were doing.'_

Natalia gave the boy and annoyed look. "It's none of your business what I'm doing."

Li paused and wetted his lips. _'…You know, it wasn't me who wanted to kidnap you. That was my dad. I think he was upset that you almost managed to castrate me.'_

Natalia gave an unimpressed snort. Li gave a silent sigh and sat next to the irritable Belarusian. She glared at him. "Why are you sitting next to me?"

Li twiddled his thumbs. _'Because I want to.'_

Natalia ran her fingers over her hidden knife and scowled at the Asian. Li seemed to notice the immediate danger but didn't bother to move away.

Li then stared at his feet. _'…Would you like to go out for tea later?'_

Natalia stared at him as if he'd just admitted to being from the future and being an alien. And being a transvestite too. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Are you asking me out on a date?" She asked, sounding mildly disgusted at the prospect. Which she was. As if she'd go out with anyone who _wasn't_ Ivan.

A very slight and almost unnoticeable crease formed between Li's eyebrows. _'No, that would be disgusting. I don't date people. I just asking you because you seem interesting and you'd probably be a better ally than enemy. Consider this as going out as friends.'_

Natalia rolled her eyes and moved her hand away from the knife. "You honestly think we're _friends_?" She asked with a slightly mocking tone.

Li shifted his gaze and stared blankly at the Belarusian. _'No. But we could be. I think we'd certainly be quite a combination.'_

Natalia hummed slightly and bothered to consider it. What would she gain from becoming the boss of the Asian mafia's son's friend? A lot, in retrospect. And Li was correct in the idea that they'd certainly be quite the pair.

Natalia sighed and held her hand out. "I suppose it sounds reasonable. I'm free Friday afternoon," she said curtly.

Something that was almost like a smile ghostly over Li's lips. He grabbed Natalia's hand and shook it. _'That sounds acceptable.'_

***

Arthur yawned and stared at the open/closed sign. He really wanted to keep it on the closed side; he really wanted to just take a day off. But what kind of pub owner would he be if he did that? He flipped the sign and prepared a 'fun' night of tending to drunks. Note the sarcasm.

Not five minutes after he flipped the sign, Francis burst through the entrance dramatically. Arthur groaned. He was _not_ in the mood to deal with the Frenchman. Francis seemed to notice his displeasure and frowned.

He practically glided over to the Brit and pulled him into an embrace. "Ah, _mon petit cheri,_ what's wrong?"

Arthur smacked the other blond with irritation. "Get the bloody hell off me, you tosser," he said, fighting off the blush that threatened to appear on his face.

Francis put a hand to his chest and sighed dramatically. "You injure me so, Arthur! Why don't you love me?"

The Brit rolled his eyes. "Because you're an idiot and a pervert," he replied instantly.

The Frenchman smiled slyly. "As are you, but I still love you."

Arthur flushed and narrowed his eyes at the blond. "I am not and you do not. Bleeding liar."

Francis frowned a bit and pulled Arthur's hand into his grasp. He ran his thumb over the Brit's knuckles slowly. "Now why would you say that? Of course I love you."

Arthur blushed again and turned away with slight anger. "Yes, you certainly make it obvious. Flirting with almost every man or woman that comes in is a surefire way to prove yourself," he said with an upset tone.

A surprised look crossed the Frenchman's face. "I never knew it bothered you."

The Brit gave Francis an incredulous look. "You _never knew?_ Francis, I'll be serious with you for a moment; are you slow in the head? Honestly, how am I supposed to know if you really love me or if I'm just one of hundreds of bedmates if you go around and flirt with _everyone_ you met?"

Francis made a face that could be considered a pout. "Arthur, do you really think I have sex with everyone I flirt with? I'm not _that_ shallow. Besides," he paused and gave the Brit's hand a quick kiss, "Even if I did have hundreds of lovers, you'd be the only one who I truly love."

Arthur blushed and soundly smacked the Frenchman. "You daft fool. I hope that wasn't supposed to be romantic."

Francis smiled. "Ah? You don't think it was? Perhaps I'm losing my touch."

The Brit snorted but a slight smile graced his lips. "Perhaps."

***

Gilbert pounded his fist into the desk and moaned. "Why does nothing work out?! Something always seems to go wrong with my awesome plans! What the hell?!"

Antonio smiled at the upset albino. "Ah, _mi amigo_, don't be too hard on yourself. You can't control someone's heart. Neither Alfred nor Maria felt anything towards each other, so it was easy for them to go their separate ways."

Gilbert paused in his desk-beating and glanced at the Spaniard. "…So it wasn't my awesome plan that failed?"

Antonio chuckled, and decided to not point out that the albino's plan sucked in the first place and it did fail. "No, no, it was just a roll of the dice, as they say."

Gilbert brightened up almost instantly. "Yeah! I knew it wasn't me! I'm still awesome!" He started to laugh manically and Antonio cheerfully joined in. Because that's what friends do. They don't tell their friends that they're losers when they fail, because that'd make their friends fell like crap. So Antonio was being a good friend by not pointing out the obvious.

***

Im Yong Soo poured tea into his friend's cup. He gave Yao a questioning look that the Chinese man picked up on. Yao raised an eyebrow. "If you want to ask something, then do it –aru."

Korea rolled his eyes. "Well usually you answer before I ask!"

Yao smiled. "I know. I just feel like messing with you today –aru."

The Korean whined. "You're so mean to me!" He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why did you go through all the trouble?"

Yao took a sip of tea and smiled slightly. "Ah? You're wondering why I bothered to brink Alfred and Ivan together –aru. Well, to be honest, it's just because I wanted to."

Im Yong Soo stared at the Chinese man with surprise. "What?! What do you mean because you wanted to? You felt like bringing two people together because you were _bored?_"

Yao shot the Korean an annoyed look. "Of course not –aru. They would have ending up together with or without my help. I just felt like making it a little sooner –aru."

Im Yong Soo stared at Yao then smiled slightly. "Well, that's a pretty nice thing to do."

Yao snorted. "If you say so –aru. Now, I've been thinking about helping this Italian and German along in their relationship. I'm sure it'll be easier than Alfred and Ivan –aru. It's a shame actually. After all, I do enjoy a _challenge_ –aru."

* * *

_Annnddddd it's over! Whoot! I enjoyed myself. I think I did a pretty good job, considering I was kinda winging it. :D_

_So thanks for all of your reviewing and favoriting and alerting and stuff! You guys are seriously the best and I thank each one of you!_

_So long, and I'll be back someday~  
_


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